The Illusion of Fate
by Bucketswag
Summary: Dave/John AU in an advanced society with extreme government control. You find out your name and gender when you turn 17, as well as hints to your future. If you don't conform to the standards, well, you'll see. Especially when homosexuality is illegal.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I have posted this several other places, but due to reasons, I decided to post this here as well. This is another homestuck AU. The premise is that in the world the characters live in, no one has a gender, name, or any kind of identity really, until they turn 17. Homosexuality is something punishable by the law aaaaand so on. So um, enjoy?  
>Disclaimer: I do not own any of Homestuck's characters. At all. In any way. Got it?<p>

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><p>Close your eyes, they told you. Close them and just watch your entire life until now play on the inside of your eyelids. It wasn't that hard to do, the machine around you was disconcerting. It's too white on the inside of the machine, and when you close your eyes, you can still see the white. A soft whirring begins next to your ear and you know it's about to begin.<br>From what your friends told you, some memories would go by quickly. The doctors told you this too. They told you that the ones that played out longer would be hints as what your future held. Just watch, and when it's over, everything will make sense. Everything will be easier from here on out. Everything will make sense.

The memories start, the memories of your birth and your first 4 years fly by. Memories that were flying by began to slow down, and you knew the first important memory would start soon. You realize when the memory slows down to sometime shortly after you turned 5. The scene playing out before you is one you know well. You and your dad outside in the yard, wrestling around like family does, playing on the slime pogo you loved so much.

'_**You**__**love**__**your**__**father**__**very**__**much.**__**He's**__**all**__**you've**__**ever**__**had.**__**But**__**in**__**the**__**future,**__**you'll**__**have**__**so**__**much**__**more.**_' a soft, low voice breaks through your memory. You wonder briefly if it's your own voice years into the future. But your mind wanders to the words even more. It's true, your dad is the only person you've had. Your mother was never in the picture, and it was against the social standards for you to have much contact outside of your home. In fact, you've spent most of your life within your house, learning there, living there, and through approved means, making friends there. That's the way things work in your world. You do exactly as you're told, because there are consequences for not doing things the right way.

The memories begin again, running on. The next time it slows down is to a memory 4 years ago. You were 13 then, but that year was probably one of the years most important to you. You see yourself in front of a computer screen, with an approved group chat in front of you. Your friends, who you only know as their screen names, are taking a break from the normal topics of movies, sick beats, gardening, and psychology.

Instead, you're talking about something far more important.

GG: so guys, i want to talk about something serious.

TG: go for it then

TT: Yes, go ahead, it will be a nice change for us.

EB: yeah!

GG: so i know we still have 4 years, but i was wondering if anyone else was...well, developing a preference.

TT: An interesting subject indeed.

GG: yeah, well... i think i'd kind of like to end up being a girl.

TG: thats pretty cool gg

TG: and tt dont turn this into some psycho-analyzing crap

TT: For your sake TG, I'll refrain. But GG, you are not alone in the development of a preference. I would have to agree with you as well,

upon the idea that I would like to be a female as well.

TG: well unlike you chumps im pretty sure id like to be a guy

TG: have all the ladies macking on me just like my bro

EB: oh wow you guys!

EB: i feel so left out!

GG: what do you mean eb?

EB: well, i guess it's because i'm ok with whatever i get!

TT: This does not surprise me at all, to be quite honest.

GG: well i think it's kind of cool that you're ok with either!

TG: so wait EB does that mean youve come to terms with your complete crush on nic cage

EB: it's not a crush!

EB: he's just a really cool actor!

TG: you keep telling yourself that kid

TG: maybe if you say it enough youll convince yourself that its true

GG: tg! rude! D:

TT: I agree that that was completely unnecessary TG.

EB: guys, it's ok. it's not like this is the first time this dumpass has ragged on me.

TG: see ebs cool with it so chill out

GG: ugh, whatever!

GG: anyways, i know that eb is the youngest of us.

GG: but maybe on the day eb goes in for the change we could meet up or something! :D

TG: that would be pretty chill

TT: I am in agreement that it would be a good idea.

EB: it would be soooooooo cool!

EB: that would be the best birthday present ever, hands down!

TG: aw come on eb i thought that nasty bunny was the best

EB: well it was really awesome, but meeting you guys is just a whole different thing!

TT: Then it's settled. This is what TG would probably call "a thing that is so happening."

GG: woot! :)

TG: lets make this shit happen

EB: you guys are the best!

The memory fades out and you go back to seeing your life in fast forward, but not without a say from the voice, '_**You've**__**always**__**been**__**so**__**content**__**with**__**everything.**__**This**__**is**__**once**__**of**__**your**__**best**__**qualities.**__**It**__**makes**__**today**__**pretty**__**hard**__**doesn't**__**it?**_'.

You watch, reliving the past four years. You'd argue that they've been your favorite years and that nothing can top them. Emotion fills you as you watch, enjoying all of your time before today. Another memory is coming up as you see them begin to slow down around December of the past year. Your friends birthdays are all around this time, starting with GG who comes back on her birthday a girl. She's happy as can be with her newly christened name of Jade Harley. The group log and your private log with her are full of congratulations. It's soon after that your memories slow down, to the day after. It's TG's birthday, at 2am to be precise. The two of you are talking privately. You think it was

because TG always trusted you a bit more than the others. Not that that would ever be admitted. Ever. You see yourself at the computer and you can see the log.

EB: so tg, are you nervous?

TG: hell no

TG: striders dont get nervous

EB: hey, you can't call yourself a strider until you're given your name.

TG: hell even if that thing decides to deem me some weird ass name ill always be a strider

EB: and youre still hoping to be a boy

TG: guy EB

TG: there's a difference between a boy and a guy

TG: a guy is a lot cooler than a boy

TG: for example i would be a guy of the male species

TG: and if for some reason you ended up being a male youd be a boy

EB: you still really think i'm going to end up a girl, dont you?

TG: well yeah

TG: it would explain a shit ton

TG: your shitty taste in movies

TG: your shitty taste in actors

TG: shit like that

EB: hey!

EB: my tastes in movies and actors is not shitty!

TG: really

TG: you could have fooled me

TG: especially with that raging crush on cage

EB: i dont have a crush on him!

TG: whatever

TG: all im saying is that the system probably wouldnt let someone like you be a guy

TG: because if you do have a crush on that shitty actor then weve got problems

EB: i know.

EB: i think i'd be really scared if i did end up being...

TG: say it

TG: youve got to get over the fear of saying it eb

EB: fine.

EB: a homosexual.

TG: see there you go

TG: was that so hard

EB: yes, yes it was.

EB: hehe

TG: even if that did happen you know youd have me jade and tt behind you

TG: hell if those government assholes tried to send you away like weve learned they do

TG: then theres no way im letting my best bro/sis go it alone

EB: awwww.

EB: thanks TG.

TG: no problem

TG: just dont get all mushy on me

EB: i wont!

TG: i think it would be ironic as fuck if you ended up being a chick and started macking on me

EB: oh man, it so would!

TG: id have to warn the other chicks off

TG: cause you and harley have prioity on the tg express

TG: well just have to see which one of you can make me swoon first

EB: what about tt?

TG: tt feels too close to being a sibling or something for me to be comfortable with that

EG: well, that makes sense i guess.

EG: honestly i think the same thing between me and jade.

TG: yeah

TG: listen man its fucking late

TG: and you know how normally i dont give one fuck two fucks red fucks blue fucks

TG: but todays kind of fucking important

EB: yeah, go get some sleep, dumpass!

TG: and just because im getting off now ive got to tell you something eb

EB: oh?

TG: ive been nervous and on talking to you just to try and chill out

TG: i am the nervous one its me

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 4:13am

EB: idiot.

Again you're brought into the memory stream. You ascend again to the normal quick speed. TG does end up being a guy, just like he wanted. And damn him if he wasn't a Strider. Dave Strider to be exact. Your thoughts at the time was that the name was truely fitting. The next day was TT's birthday and everyone wished for the best of luck. Later, the handle popped up in the chat room, your friend announcing her new name as being Rose Lalonde, clearly a female. Everyone congratulates her and everything goes back to normal-ish.

'_**You're**__**friends,**__**although**__**you**__**haven't**__**met**__**them,**__**have**__**been**__**very**__**important**__**to**__**you.**__**In**__**the**__**future,**__**you**__**will**__**find**__**love**__**with**__**one.**__**You'll**__**find**__**one**__**of**__**them**__**will**__**keep**__**all**__**of**__**your**__**secrets.**__**And**__**you'll**__**find**__**that**__**the**__**other**__**will**__**be**__**there**__**for**__**you**__**in**__**the**__**moment**__**that**__**they**__**are**__**needed'**_. The voice quips cryptically in your head.

Your memories continue forward, covering the last few months of your life. They slow down one more time, to the night before. You were again talking to Dave, again, at some absurd hour.

EB: i'm just so nervous!

EB: pretty much everyone has a preference by now!

EB: but i still don't have one!

TG: eb relax bro

TG: take a breath and chill

TG: everythings going to be just fine

EB: i hope so.

EB: i'm really excited to meet everyone!

EB: i just hope that i don't end up shocking everyone in person if something unexpected happens!

TG: i dont think it will

TG: at least for some of us

TG: i mean

TG: youve got me and harley believing that youre going to be a chick

TG: and lalonde not saying anything

TG: one of us is bound not to be surprised.

EB: i guess you're right.

EB: well, good night!

TG: night man

ectobiologist [EB] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 12:31am

You smile fondly within your thoughts that everyone has your back. The voice doesn't seem to have anything to say right after the memory, and you watch straight through until the memory of the doctors telling you to close your eyes. It's then that the voice decides to speak up.

'_**It's**__**been**__**a**__**little**__**hard**__**for**__**you**__**not**__**knowing,**__**hasn't**__**it.**__**Your**__**moment**__**has**__**now**__**come,**__**however,**__**for**__**all**__**to**__**be**__**relieved**__**to**__**you.**__**Some**__**things**__**I**__**will**__**tell**__**you**__**must**__**be**__**shared**__**with**__**people**__**in**__**general.**__**Other**__**things,**__**you**__**may**__**wish**__**to**__**hide**__**in**__**your**__**heart.**__**First,**__**you**__**may**__**know**__**that**__**your**__**dream**__**of**__**becoming**__**a**__**biologist**__**will**__**not**__**come**__**true.**__**Although**__**this**__**may**__**be**__**disappointing**__**to**__**hear**__**now,**__**fear**__**not.**__**You**__**are**__**going**__**to**__**go**__**on**__**a**__**long**__**journey,**__**where**__**you**__**will**__**find**__**your**__**true**__**calling.**__**I**__**can**__**tell**__**you**__**nothing**__**more**__**about**__**that.**__**Next,**__**you**__**shall**__**learn**__**the**__**symbol**__**that**__**expresses**__**you**__**as**__**an**__**individual.**__**You**__**alone**__**have**__**the**__**symbol**__**of**__**the**__**wind.**__**You**__**will**__**find**__**in**__**time**__**what**__**it**__**means**__**to**__**you.**__**Then,**__**there**__**is**__**the**__**task**__**of**__**telling**__**you**__**the**__**weapon**__**you**__**will**__**wield.**__**You**__**will**__**be**__**a**__**keeper**__**of**__**the**__**winds,**__**and**__**you**__**shall**__**wield**__**a**__**hammer**__**with**__**power**__**beyond**__**your**__**knowledge.**__**The**__**next**__**thing**__**you**__**should**__**know,**__**and**__**should**__**only**__**tell**__**those**__**that**__**you**__**trust**__**with**__**your**__**life,**__**is**__**that**__**what**__**you**__**feared**__**is**__**true.**__**Though,**__**you**__**should**__**not**__**treat**__**it**__**as**__**a**__**bad**__**thing.**__**You**__**will**__**grow**__**into**__**it,**__**even**__**if**__**you**__**do**__**not**__**now**__**understand**__**what**__**I**__**reference.**__**Finally,**__**there**__**is**__**the**__**matter**__**of**__**your**__**gender**__**and**__**name.**__**Child,**__**you**__**are**__**a**__**man.**__**And**__**your**__**name**__**from**__**today**__**on,**__**shall**__**be**__**Johnathan**__**Egbert.**__**You**__**will**__**prefer**__**John,**__**however.**__**Now,**__**go**__**forth,**__**on**__**your**__**17th**__**birthday,**__**and**__**begin**__**your**__**journey.**_'


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: And the second chapter as well.  
>Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Homestuck.<p>

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><p>John Egbert. The name plays over and over in you mind like a matra of the cultures of long ago that you studied in school. It felt so right. As it should. Because you, you are John Egbert. This name defines you. Defines you to society, as a man, as someone who will one day have a family, as someone they would work together with to create a better world. Your name also defines you to yourself. You are John Egbert, you are 17 years old, and today, in the eyes of society, you are awake for the very first time. You are real for the first time. And for the first time, you have a gender and a name.<p>

You are released from the machine that allowed you to know who you are. A doctor comes into the white room and asks you, "What is your name?"

You answer this question for the first time, quietly, the name sliding off of your tongue, "My name is John. John Egbert."

"Well, John," the doctor says with a smile, "welcome to your world. Welcome to Alternia."

All you do in response is nod. The doctor examines you and scribbles notes down on a chart, the first record of you that is not just marked as 'a patient'. The first time your name is written into any official paper. The doctor begins to ask you questions, what your symbol was, how did you currently feel, what, if you were told, was your sexual preference. You answered them almost mechanically until the last question. You falter, the words feeling like a lie, even though they ring true in your mind, "I don't know." All the doctor does is nod and continue his questioning, eventually leaving the room for a few minutes, returning shortly after with a shirt, your shirt, the one that would help others define who you were as a person.

This is a very interesting shirt," the doctor muses, "it is the only one of its kind ever made, one of four that were only made once. You should feel very important, Mr. Egbert. It was thought, back when this originally would happen, that those who did share something of this nature would be bound together forever. In fact, I believe you know the other three quite well. They're waiting for you in the lobby. You're free to go now and be with your friends."

You thank him as you put on your new shirt, and leave the room as calmly as you can manage. But once you are free from its confines, you run down the hallway to get to the lobby to meet your friends for the first time, in person.

They're not at all what you expected. They're better in fact. You had no clue what your friends would look like, but all three of them had looks that fit their personalities. Jade is smiling, like the way she always inserts smiles into her texts, and you can tell she's very excited to be here, seeing as she's jumping around. Rose, when you first see her, is scanning the lobby, trying to figure out who you would be. She looks calculating and it matches her perfectly. And Dave. Holy shit, Dave. You did not expect him to look like that at all. You had thought for all that "cool talk" he would actually look like a bit of a dweeb. But he didn't, he just looked so cool, so, well, Dave!

You know that it's them because the symbols on their shirts look nothing like you have ever seen a symbol look like before. You seem to attract their attention as you enter the lobby. You walk up to them slowly, smiling, and extend a hand, "It's nice to finally meet you guys. I'm John. John Egbert."  
>They all smile, even Dave, and instead of a handshake, you receive a hug from Jade, a pat on the back from Rose, and a fistbump from Dave. You are all smiles as you finally, finally meet your friends. Four years of friendship lead to this very moment, and it could not have been any more perfect. Everyone smiles and Rose is the first on to decide that this meeting is probably not a good idea to remain in the lobby. The three of you exit the building and walk down the street in pairs, Jade and Rose leading, you and Dave following close behind, and you walk down the street to the cafe, one you've never been in. One you've never been allowed in. Actually, you've never been anywhere before outside of your home and the facility that you were just in. But now, as an adult with a name, you're allowed to. Allowed to live your life out.<p>

You step into the cafe with your friends and sit down. Everyone orders a drink, and you can't help but think how much better the hot chocolate is here rather than out of a packet. The four of you are talking, about anything and everything. You can't keep the smile off of your face as you watch Jade laugh at some joke you make, Rose smile when Jade nearly tips her chair back because she was laughing so hard, and Dave smirking at the silliness of it all. You enjoy your time with your friends, just as you did before you even met them. And you like this more, like being able to see their faces and gauge their emotions.

"So," Jade says as she recovers from laughing, "Have you guys gotten your housing assignments yet?"  
>Rose nods with a polite smile, "Indeed, I was assigned to a small apartment about a month and a half ago with my new roommate. Her name is Kanaya and she can carry a delightfully intelligent conversation."<p>

"Yeah, I was assigned last week! My roommate is really nice. Her name is Feferi and she's super nice! We're already friends!" Jade gushes.  
>"Well unlike you chumps, and I can speak for Egbert on this too, neither of us have gotten our assignments yet. From what they told me, they were waiting to house me with someone that they were waiting for to come of age." Dave says nonchalantly, "It would be ironic as fuck if Egbert and I ended up being roommates. Hell, it would be a shit ton better than dealing with my Bro and English all the fucking time. Even if Egbert's movies rival English's for the title of 'most shitty of all time'."<p>

You laugh and punch his arm lightly, understanding his poking at your love of movies, and the conversation moves on. You enjoy your time late into the evening with them. But sadly, as it nears 11, you know you have to leave. You can not keep your dad up waiting for you. Although, you're not sure you want to go home, seeing as Dad's probably baked you at least four cakes. You say goodbye to your friends, promising to talk to them later on Pesterchum, and leave the cafe.

It's dark out as you walk down the street. You know where you're going, seeing as dad made you a map to make sure you got to the facility and back ok. But that doesn't stop you from tensing up. Really, expecting a newly Awakened guy to walk home by himself! You realize alone in the dark that even with all of the rigorous schooling you were put through, there was nothing that really prepared you to enter the real world. Sometimes you think about how the government shelters everyone until their seventeenth birthday and wonder why they do it. You even went as far as to ask Dad once. But all he told you is that it was to protect you and that you shouldn't go against the system. So you never questioned it out loud again.

You make it home within fifteen minutes of you walking. You open the door and walk in, your dad appearing in the entry hallway and hugging you, congratulating you on becoming a man. You smile and hug him back. And you can't help but realize a sad look in his eyes.  
>When you question it, he sighs, "Well son, there's a time in a man's life when he has to leave the nest. Some officials stopped by shortly after you left and picked up your stuff. They left this note with your new address on it. You've got your housing assignment."<p>

You take the paper he hands you and read the address. Apartment 613 in the Medium complex. You find your key to the apartment within the folds of the note. The note doesn't mention who your roommate will be. But it doesn't matter, because you're tearing up and hugging your dad. It all seemed like a far away dream before today that this would be happening. But it is. You're leaving home and you know that the only way you can come back is for visits with your dad. It's so sudden, and you know you're going to miss him. You wont miss all of the cake, but you'll miss him.

When the embrace is broken, he ushers you out of your house and into the car. Your dad gets in the drivers seat and pulls out, driving towards your new home. There's a cake sitting in the back seat, and you know it's for you. He stops when you reach the complex, reaching over and giving you one last hug and a goodbye before you get out of the car, receive your cake, and step towards your new life. You wave goodbye to his idling car as you slip the key into the lock of your apartment, open the door, and step inside.

The first thing you notice when you close the door and take off your shoes, are obscene amounts of puppets. Smuppets, you've learned from Dave that they're called. He knows this because his bro is the king of the smuppet empire. It worries you that there are so many around. You believe anyone who keeps more than one of the two things around has to be some level of creepy. Stepping past the smuppets, you enter a medium sized kitchen, fit with a table with four total chairs, appliances, and some magnets on the fridge. It's nice and clean, and you know it's because the movers must have taken time to arrange at least some of you and your roommate's things. Obviously they didn't even try with the smuppets.

You walk through the kitchen into a living room. There you find a t.v. ( a nice size for gaming or watching movies on), a futon, and a few other furnishings. Upon further inspection, you find all of your movies on a shelf, as well as some titles you don't recognize. The gaming system is hooked up too, and you also find some titles you don't recognize among the titles of the video games as well. All you've got to say is that you're glad your roommate seems to like video games and stuff, too. You find a small half bath between the kitchen and living room. There's a sliding glass door that seems to lead to a shared courtyard garden in the living room and then the stairs on the other side of the room. And of course, you ascend the stairs to check out the rest.

At the top of the stairs, there are five doors. One is a full bathroom with an enclosed shower. The one next to it is a linen closet. You open it and see that like the kitchen, everything has been supplied for you by the government. Because that's the way it works around here. Anyways, you look to the doors across from the bathroom. One has a very familiar movie poster tacked up to it. You agree with whoever decorated that Ghost Busters was definitely a good choice to hang on what is your door. You open the door and find an exact replica of your room back at dad's. It makes you a little sad, but you know you will learn to deal with it.

The next room over is what your guess to be your roommate's. You don't open the door because, hey, everyone deserves privacy. You wonder a bit what your roommate will be like. You wonder if they've even been in the apartment yet. But you decide to leave it for another time. You still have one more door to explore.  
>The last door is situated at the end of the hallway, on the wall between the other rooms. You open the door to find a set of stairs. You climb up them to find another door and open it. You step through the door into the cool night air. You're on the roof and you have an absolutely beautiful view of the city from here. You gasp at the way everything is lit up and smile. You stand like that for a few moments before the sound of someone clearing their throat fairly close to you breaks the spell.<p>

"Well I'll be damned. This is so fucking ironic, I can't even stand the levels of absolute irony right now."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: So, no one was around to beta this again, so I'm sorry if something sounds strange. This chapter has some serious build up though, and will be the base of pretty much everything that happens. I hope you enjoy it.

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><p><p>

You spend the next few weeks getting settled into your apartment and new life. You were initially worried that it would be hard to adjust to your new life, but really it's better than you thought. Everything is made a hell of a lot better being around your friends. You probably wouldn't get through half of the shit that you've gone through without them.

Like the day, about a week after you found out about your gender when you started, for lack of a better term than the one you learned in your schooling, actually developing your physical sex. Yeah, you'd learned about what would happen, how your previously neutral areas would begin to form to match your sex. For school, you read it in detail what happens for either gender. But reading about it didn't even compare to how it actually felt.

You woke up the Monday exactly one week after your seventeenth birthday in unexplainable pain. You freaked the fuck out, because you initially had no clue what the fuck was happening. In fact, you even went as far as to wake Dave up to ask him what was going on. He wasn't happy to be woken up at four in the morning, but when he realize how scared you were he stopped complaining. He had pulled on his shades ( it was semi-normal for you to see him without his shades for a few minutes every day, his red eyes didn't even faze you) and asked you a few questions. After a few moments, he realized what was happening and told you what it was. He quickly made his way to the bathroom and returned to where you sat on his bed with some pain medication and water and told you,"Take these and you'll feel better bro. I remember when it happened to me. Hurt like fuck and Bro wouldn't buy any meds. I swear he sat there laughing at me for the first three days until English came home from some schooling-thing and took pity on me and gave me some of these."

It took the entire week and nearly a whole bottle of pain medication for the whole ordeal to be over. And when it was, you were glad. It was weird for a while, looking down and seeing, well, that, but you've sort of now gotten used to it.

You were contacted the week after that about the new school session that would be starting within the next month. All of your friends were, actually, and on the day you got the course catalogs, you all hung out in the cafe you spent your first day after your Awakening, picking out courses and deciding what you wanted to do.

Rose, it was no surprise, decided on the course path that would allow her to major in psychology. It wasn't really a surprise to you or the others for that matter. You and Jade clap her on the back and tell her that you're proud of her. Dave is the only one who complains that there 'doesn't need to be any more psychoanalysis bullshit popping up in his message inbox'. She discusses in detail with the group some of the classes she would be attending. Some of the courses she decided would benefit her decision made a lot of sense, like the course on personality analysis. Some were obscure, like biology ( you really didn't understand how the subject would even play into psychology!). But you knew she would be happy with what she was doing, so you were happy for her.

Jade also decided on a science as her specialization. Agriculture to be precise. You remember a few times that she had expressed her love of gardening. But you didn't realize just how much she loved it. In fact, you found out that day that the garden that served as an inner courtyard in your apartment complex was actually her doing in just the few short months she had been out of her home. It really is a magnificent garden, a lot of nights if you couldn't sleep you would spend time there calming down, if you weren't on the roof that is. You and the other two congratulate her on her decision while she gets to work circling her choices in a pen a color reminiscent of her text color on the computer.

Dave decides on something completely different from the other two. Then again, none of you are surprised when he tells you he wants to go into digital music. You and Jade thought that it's super cool, but Rose wonders and pesters him the entire time how he would market himself. She also brings up the point that going into music of any sort was risky business. And it's a good point. Any music produced was regulated by the government, and if it wasn't approved, the file was destroyed completely. Having 5 musical inquiries turned down meant the termination of a musicians music license ( which was very, very hard to obtain). Dave just shrugged and blew her off, selecting his courses that he would need as well as a few extra courses in photography and one in cinematography.

Everyone looked at you expectantly to hear what you wanted to do. After looking through the catalogs, you still had no clue what to do. You remember on the day of your Awakening that the voice had told you ectobiology was not in your future (although you still think it would be really cool to be the one creating and placing the next generations in their homes like your dad had done). After a while, you just decide that you'll chose your specialization later, after you've taken some courses and have figured out what it is you want to do. Your friends assure you that it's okay as you chose to take courses in musical studies ( with specialized piano courses), cinematography, computer programming, and comedic theater.

Life settles into a pattern as classes start, and you begin to feel at home with your new life. Everything is pretty much normal now. And sometimes, you ask yourself if it could get any better than this.

You do have some interesting events happen to you though. These happen mainly when it's you and Dave hanging around the house. Like a conversation that you had with him just the other day. Quite interesting in fact. It started while you and he were playing a video game.

"You know, it's a hella lot better playing video games with you than it was my bro, Egbert." Dave says to you, " Hell, it's a shit ton better just living with you than it was him."[

"It couldn't have been that bad." You say.

"Dude, you don't even know. Shit was ridiculous. Between random strifes and smuppets falling out of jesus christ knows where, living with Bro was fucking ridiculous. Not to mention he was fucking English every god damn night, and those apartment walls were fucking thin."

You had been taking a swig of some Tab just before he said the final part of that statement, but found yourself literally doing a spit take when he did, "Dude, you're joking, right?"

He gave you a look over his sunglasses and you knew he did, "Every. Fucking. Night."

"But that's -" you're about to finish but he interrupts you. He sighs, "Yes John, it's illegal. You know it, I know it, they know it, and you know what? It never stopped them. Shit, Bro would never admit it, but he loved and still fucking loves English. Is it so wrong if two people are in love and all that shit? I mean, they were pretty much together before their Awakenings, even before they got their gender assignments. So is it really that wrong? I don't even understand why that shit is illegal"

You stop and think about this. As in seriously think about it. And you realize he's right. It doesn't mean that you in particular would go looking for a homosexual relationship, but, you guess if it did happen to you...no, you weren't going to let your thoughts go there. It's still illegal, although you don't know why, and you are not a rule breaker. You move away from that subject, attempting to smoothly transition to another subject, "So, when are you going to ask Jade out?"

It's his turn for a spit take. He wipes his mouth and curses how uncool that just was, "Egbert, what the hell makes you even think I have any interest in Harley in that way? I sure as hell don't wear a sign around saying that I'd even want to do something like that. Jesus dick, I don't think I've even implied any shit like that."

"You so have!" you exclaim. You recall to him the conversation you had with him before your awakening about how he'd either be asking you or Jade to be together with him after everything had settled down. He just shakes his head and starts the game up again, not saying anything on the matter. And being the good friend you are, you let it go and don't pester him about it.

The whole conversation though makes you think about what living with Dave was like. It was strange, living with him. Dave Strider had some weird quirks. Like the fact that half of your fridge was occupied by quote-unquote "shitty swords". And the smuppets that ended up various places within the house ( even after you watched him attempt to get rid of them all, they just kept showing up). What was really strange were the days when suddenly there was a new puppet in the apartment. The first time you found him, he was sitting on top of the living room t.v. Dave explained that he was Lil' Cal and that he just did that sometimes. To be honest, the damn thing scared the shit out of you every time it would appear. It was like it was possessed or something, and its eyes looked like they were going to steal your soul. Dave just shrugged it off, and sometimes you caught him giving the thing a fist bump. But whatever, to each his own you guess. Dave had some other quirks too, like spending time on the roof feeding the crows or creating "sick beats" at random times like two in the morning. But hey, that's what happens when you live with Dave Strider. And you get used to it.

Everything becomes normal for you, everything systematic. You conform to your new schedule with ease, and everything is going great. But, as they say, all good things had to come to an end. And when they did, the explosions it set off would change your life, and the life of the rest of your world, forever. You just didn't know it yet.

It happened a month and a half into your first school semester. Everything was going great. Your classes were awesome, you got to spend a lot of time with your friends, and even make some new ones, and everything was perfect. Hell, Lil' Cal hadn't even shown up for a few weeks. Which actually meant more than you ever thought it would.

Dave came back to the apartment one day when your only class for the day had been canceled and you had decided just to hang out. His clothes were ruffled, like he had been running, his sunglasses askew, with a look on what wasn't obstructed on his face that read total panic. You sprang up, quickly moving to check on your friend, "Dave, what's up? Don't you have classes? What happened, why are you so-"  
>He cut you off, "They arrested them, John."<p>

"Arrested who?" You asked, confused. Arrests never happened, and when they did, they happened in a different part of the city to people you would never had known.

"Bro and Jake." He says. He's shaking, and you can tell he's trying not to lose his cool demeanor, "They were found out. They were so fucking careful not to let on about what was going on, but they were still caught. Fuck, I don't even..."

The floodgates open, it's too much for him. He's sobbing and you quickly hug him and hold him tightly, rubbing his back and murmuring calming words in his ear. You don't blame him for breaking down. You know how he idolized his brother, even if he complained about him often. You stand there for quite a while, until his sobs have ceased, and even a while after that. When you finally do let him go, he rubs his eyes free of the last few tears, and you finally speak up, "Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm going down to the holding cells to talk to him later." He says slowly, "I'm going to find out what happened, who turned him in. I don't know what I'll do after that, but hell if I'm not going to do anything about it."

He does go down to the cells and talk to his brother later. He tells you about how today he and Jake were doing their usual thing (without any ugly details) and something felt off to Bro. The only thing he noticed out of place was that Lil' Cal had appeared and was sitting on one of his dressers. They were quiet and discreet as usual. Neither he, nor apparently Jake had any idea. And it wasn't as if the officials were going to tell them.  
>For the next few days, Dave stayed home and spent countless hours sitting on the roof, watching the skyline blankly. You spent any time you weren't in class or spending a little time with other friends with him. You're worried about him, and you don't know what to do but be there for him.<br>Not even five days after it happens you receive more news. It comes in the form of Jade rushing into your apartment, having obviously used your spare key to get it. She had the same look on her face Dave did when he had told you about Bro. But you know it wasn't any of her family, so you initially had no clue why she was here with you in such a state. Until she told you what she knew.

Jade was Rose's neighbor and you knew that. But what you didn't know, what no one in your group knew, was that Rose was in a secret relationship. With her roommate, Kanaya. It came as a shock to you, just as it had to Jade. Just as it had been a shock to Jade to watch Rose and Kanaya being dragged out of their apartment, under arrest. Just like Bro an Jake. Dave was on the roof when she told you this, and after she relayed it, the two of you bolted up the stairs to tell him. You comforted Jade as she broke down when she told the story again, and watched Dave's mouth turn into a hard line, obviously trying not to flip his shit.

This time, it's your turn to go down to the cells and visit. You try to visit Jake and Bro, but you find out that they're both gone. Off to god knows where, considering no one will tell you when you ask. You know Dave will be broken when you tell him, but before you do that, you attend to the other business you have there. Visiting Rose. She smiles when you come to stand on one side of the clear cell wall. You ask how she is and carry out a normal conversation for a few minutes before getting down to the questions you really want to ask. How was she found out, was there anything off about her surroundings, and most importantly, why didn't she tell the small band of friends about her relationship? She answers you effectively. No one would have turned them in, they, like Bro and Jake, had been careful. Rose told him that the only thing was off was this strange puppet that had shown up out of no where. And from her description, you know exactly what puppet it is. And there's no way it was coincidence that Lil' Cal would be at both of your friends who was arrested's homes. She also says something about someone called Lord English, but she doesn't really know how it relates to what happens.

And then she tells you why she didn't tell your group in the first place. She tells you she was afraid, afraid of what the three of you would think of her if she told you. She tears up, and you wish you could get through the wall to comfort her, but you know you can't. You tell her that it's okay, you tell her that no one would have thought any different of her. You comfort her as well as you can until a guard comes and kicks you out because visitation hours were over.

You hurry home and relay everything you found out to Dave, and then to Jade. Both look troubled, and Dave looks borderline outraged. You put together the pieces that you can, and promise to work on putting the rest together within the next few days. You knew now that you only had five days until Rose was probably going to be carted off who knows where. And you knew that the three of you had to do everything you could to stop it from happening.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n: Yeah, already. Building everything up a little more and explaining some things. And a bit of fluff at the end. Enjoy!  
>Disclaimer: I do not own Homestuck. Come on, you should know this by now.<p>

For the next three days, you, Dave, and Jade do everything you can to find out what's going to happen to Rose, Kanaya ( as well as whatever's currently happening to Bro and Jake), how Lil' Cal connects to them being caught, and who Lord English is. Dave used some of the hacking skills Bro had taught him to search every database he could. Jade did some poking around with some of the professors at the school. But both came up blank. On the third day of searching you knew nothing more than you did initially.

The third day however you had a revelation of sorts. You remembered that your dad had told you once about when he was a boy, how not all information was kept in the electronic databases. Some of it was still kept in books. You'd read about books while you were still being schooled from home. They were an Artifact, something from the old world that the government kept close control on. There was a scale of the level of control the government had on Artifacts. The first level was a Passable. These were things that you could use daily and move freely with, like a pocket watch. Then there were Inheritances. This level of artifact had to remain within a home and could only be given to family members, like the harlequins your dad continuously tried to pass off to you. Then there were the Restricteds. These were kept by the schools to use for educational purposes. And then there were the Forbiddens. No one but high ranking government officials were ever allowed access to these, and from what you learned, for them to even get clearance was a long process. Some books ranged from Inheritances to Forbiddens, and you are absolutely sure that the information you want would be in a Forbidden book. And you know just where to find all of the Forbidden books that you'll need to help your friends.

You don't tell Dave or Jade what you're planning on doing. You spend your day as you normally would, waiting for the time you planned to pull off your operation. And you have to admit you feel like a badass, seeing as you're going to do something sneakier than Dave and his hacking, and because you're wearing all black just like the spies in your favorite spy movies.

When the clock tells you that it's 2:27 am is when you make your move. You know Dave went to sleep nearly an hour ago, and that by now he'd be sound asleep. It's one of the advantages to having lived with your best friend for a while. You slip quietly out the back door and into the garden, knowing that the front door would be too conspicuous. You move quietly over the ground to the back wall, where Jade had one day shown you the ivy she had planted that climbed the wall and was sturdy enough to climb. Grabbing the vines in your hands, you scale the wall, check to make sure you weren't seen, and jump onto the street below. You begin your trek to the building that houses the records, which is nearly half the city away. Sticking to the shadows, you go completely unnoticed the entire way there.

You've timed it just right that the sole guard who stood watch over the entrance of the old building that housed the Forbidden items had left to get coffee at a shop a few blocks down the road. None of the higher-ups ever knew this but you did, there had been a few rumors of it around the school, but no one would ever act on it. You however, use this opportunity to slip in, using the lock picking tricks you learned from one of your dad's Inheritance books. This was probably the one and only time Colonel Sassacre would ever come in handy. You enter into the building and are shocked. There are items of all shapes and sizes everywhere. There's no organization to any of the Forbiddens that you find as you enter the building. But you can't help to notice the lack of books, which gives you some hope that somewhere here they were in a room and organized.

Items threaten to tumble down upon you from precariously perched places as you weave your way deeper into the building. You look around for any sign of a room that could contain books but are not fruitful in your search. When you do finally find a door that's worth opening and step in, you find some very interesting things. First, you find four Strife Specibi modus storage units. These are add ons to the Fetch Modus that everyone uses for carrying what they need, and they're something only those who end up as designated soldiers are allowed to use. The four you find though are different, and all together strange however. They each bear a symbol on them, and as you look at them, you recognize the symbols. Why in the world would there be Strife Specibi with Dave, Rose, Jade, and even your symbols on them in a Forbidden storage. You stick them in your Modus because hell, it technically belongs to you anyway. That's how it worked, if you had a symbol, anything that had your symbol was rightfully yours to take. And you take the others' with you as well, because they belong to them. As you finish putting the last one, yours, you realize that it didn't store in your Modus like the others, but became an automatic function of your Modus. '_Maybe,'_ you think, '_this could come in use later.' _

You continue through the building, your interest piqued because of the addition to your modus. You look around and find several more things that rightfully belong to your friends. You find a gun with Jades symbol, and it's pretty impressive to say the least. You find knitting needles with Rose's symbol. And you find a broken sword with Dave's symbol. You place all of them in your Fetch Modus to give to your friends later. The next room you go into catches your eye because it emits a blue light. You enter and find another item which has a familiar symbol on it. It's yours this time, and what you've found is a hammer, a large one, that reminded you of the pogo ride you used to have as a child in your yard. Excitedly, you attempt to add this to your Modus, but find that it becomes allocated to your newly obtained Strife Specibi. You feel a bit safer if the guard were to come in now. You could fight back, even if he did have a government regulated Gunkind.

You move through the rest of the building until finally, finally, you find what you were looking for. The room you happen upon is full of books. It's unorganized for the most part, except for the one wall of official looking books. You riffle through them until you find exactly what you're looking for, a small book titled _Crimes Within the Nation, their Sentencing, and how they are Determined_. You quickly put it into your Modus before you realize in the worst of ways, that it was not a good idea. You curse your inability to successfully use your damn Modus without sending something flying across the room. The item chucked was your school books, all of them. They explode across the room, flying everywhere, knocking over stacks upon stacks of the unorganized books. The sound is deafening to you and you know you have to get out _now_, before someone comes to investigate. You dash into the hallway and look for the closest escape. There's a window at the end of the hall, and you dash to it, throwing it open hastily and jumping out, remembering to turn and close it behind you before running as fast as you can away from the scene of your crime.

When you make it back to the apartment, taking in shuttering breaths from running so long, it's well past 3 am. But you could not care less about the time as you dashed up the stairs to Dave's room, opening the door and frantically shook him to wake him up. He wakes up with a startled grunt and allows you to pull him down the stairs and across the garden to throw pebbles at Jade's window until she comes out. Then, you tell them what you did, and show them what you found. You give them what's theirs, opting to give Dave Rose's things to take care of, seeing as he had the most control over his Modus. They equip their Strife Specibi and new weapons as you did before the three of you gathered around the book to find out exactly what was happening.

The whole situation looked grim. The price, you find in the book, for being convicted of homosexuality, is being sent to one of two camps, Prospit for those who "weren't supposed to end up homosexual" and Derse, for those who were "damned from the moment they Awakened". Normally, if you went to one camp, your partner went to the other. Which was dangerous. Because, if you and your partner had already formed a bond, well, it could mean death. You know this again because of schooling. You had learned of the four non-family bonds that could be foraged once you were given your gender. The first bond was the Matesprit, a bond that could only be formed once. Two people could only form this bond when two things were achieved. First, the other person had to be the person you were destined to form the bond with, and second, you had to seal it by...well, interpersonal relations. If Rose and Kanaya or Bro and Jake had formed these and were apart with the distance between Prospit and Derse, they would get sick and eventually, they could die. Which was not an option. The other 3 bonds, Moirail, Auspice, and Kismesis were a bit more vague, but they were not at the forefront of your mind in that moment.  
>You finished reading before the others, full of fear as you watched them finish reading the passage, trying to gauge their emotions. Jade was scared like you, you could tell, but that night you couldn't tell how Dave was feeling like you normally could. You took the book, looking through it for any mention of a Lord English, using it as an excuse not to meet Jade's green eyes, or Dave's through his shades. All you came up with was that he was currently in charge of the "correction facilities" of Prospit and Derse.<p>

Finally, you became the one to break the silence, "We have to do something."

"But what?" Jade asked sadly, "We're only 17 and the government would never let us handle them or leave or visit them or anything!"

Dave shook his head, standing up, " I dunno about you two, but I'm going after them."

Both you and Jade looked at him stunned before he started talking again, "Like hell am I just going to sit here and not help them. I owe it to them to try to help all four of them, even if it means getting into trouble or any shit like that. They could lock me up in one of those camps after for all I care. But there is no way in hell that I'm letting my friends die because of who the fuck they love. I don't care if you two stay behind, but I'm doing this."

You suddenly feel very defiant to his statement, "Dave, their our friends too. I don't know about Jade but I'm not going to just sit here and wait for you to try and do it by yourself. I'm going with you and don't you dare say no or try and make me stay here. You're not the only one with a moral compass, jackass."

Jade smiles and nods, "I'm going too."

"It's settled then," Dave says, "Here's the plan, 'cause it's the best we've got to go on. In two days, they'll be shipping Kanaya and Rose off to Prospit and Derse. We've got to tail them and figure out how to get in. Then we'll do whatever the hell it takes to free them. To free anyone at those camps. From there, who the fuck even cares. Let's do this shit."

You all nod in agreement. You return to your respective apartments. When you've reached the safety of yours the reality of the whole situation finally falls on you. You're the last of the group to finally break down, to finally fall to the floor of your living room in tears because of how fucked up everything was. You had tried so hard to be the one who was strong for everyone. The friend-leader. But you couldn't keep it up. Because sometimes it was all too much. And when you finally did break down, Dave was there for you like you were for him. He held you until you stopped crying, until you had cried yourself to exhaustion, so much so that you fell asleep in his warm embrace. You wouldn't know until you asked when all was said and done, but that night, he carried you upstairs to his room, placing you gently on the bed. Hesitantly, he placed a kiss upon your forehead and held you all through the night, getting up before you so that you would never know.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Wow, alright. So, here is the new chapter to a story that will also be gaining it's name this morning! I asked my followers on Tumblr, and the new name of this fic is The Illusion of Fate. I hope you all enjoy! Happy New Year, by the way!

The next two days seem like the longest days of your life. The morning after Jade, Dave, and you designed your plans, you woke up, late for your first class, and with your eyes crusted over from the tears of the night before. You get ready, making a mental note to thank Dave later for making you breakfast.

It's weird, the unspoken relationship the two of you have. Most days are quiet. If you have an earlier class than he does that day, you wake him up that morning and handle breakfast. He does the same for you. If there was time between classes, you both would hang out. Unless you had something else planned that is, or on days where one of you decided you needed some alone time to be creative with. You took turns cooking dinner and spent the evenings playing video games, studying, or occasionally watching a movie.

Normally the two of you took turns trying to come up the best way to poke fun at each other's quirks. Some days the insults would be light and playful, others had lead to a few fistfights, of which usually lead to one of you apologizing in some way ( the most notable being the time a comment went to far, and you ended up with a cracked rib and black eye. You apologized for what you'd said by sneaking on to Dave's computer and making a fairly shitty computer that filled his screen with "I'm sorry" any time he opened anything for the next twenty-four hours, and he? You found a cd of mixed songs about apologizing, most of them being remixes that Dave put together specially for you.).

'_But that was all in the past_.' you find yourself thinking. Now Dave, Jade, and yourself were doing the unthinkable. What you were going to do is dangerous. No one else would ever dare to do it. If you were caught, you weren't sure what would happen. You couldn't let that happen. You've resolved yourself to what you're going to do.

First, you were going to escape this society. Within the past week your eyes opened to just how imperfect everything was here, how corrupt every aspect of your life was until now. Next you were going to free the people of Prospit and Derse and free your friends. Then, you would disappear, off of any of the government's maps. After that you weren't sure what you planned on. But one thing was certain now, you were leaving and never coming back.

The next day, you stay home from classes. You and Dave started packing. You knew to only take what you needed and went about captchalouging what you would need. You captchalouge the clothing you would need, several maps, the book you had stolen, and after making an agreement with Dave, half of the non-perishable food you had stocked up on. The items fit nicely into the wallet modus you inherited from your dad, and when you realize it, you know there's still something you need to do before you leave.

Once you've cleared that everything was taken care of with Dave, go up to your room, take a poster down from your wall, and you sit down at the desk. Your Armageddon poster to be exact. A blue marker finds its way from a desk drawer into your hands. And then you write.

_dear dad,_

_i know this is sudden and i'm sorry.  
><em>_tomorrow i'm leaving, as in forever.  
>please know that it wasn't anything that you did.<br>i'm doing what i believe is right.  
>i dont want you to look for me.<br>i'm so sorry, but i have to fight for this.  
>i love you so much.<em>

_love,  
>john.<em>

You know that he'll find it, you can feel it in your heart. Writing your note almost brings you to tears, but you hold them in. From now on you know you can't let yourself cry, you have to be strong if you were going to make it through this with your life.

When you check the clock, you realize it's not yet even past 5 in the evening. Jade would be returning from her last class and whatever she had to do afterward ( she hadn't given you any details aside from it being something important to your mission's success). You decide to calm yourself down by playing mindless video games.

When you make your way to the living room from your room and sit down on the couch, you catch Dave's eye. He must agree with your idea, because he's plopping down next to you and grabbing the second player controller. Without a word, you play through level after level of a game. You don't even know which one.

Your gaming comes to an end however, when Jade finally walks into your home. Dave pauses the game, "So? What's up Harley?"

"Well, I've got all of my stuff captchalouged. I also payed off a friend of mine to set off an explosion while we're leaving the city. And then I went and...um... convinced someone to let me borrow a mode of transportation for us! So we wont be stuck walking to God knows where." She says. She gives you and Dave a small smile, "I was hoping I could stay here tonight?"

"Of course!" you respond immediately. Dave shoots you a look that you can see even from behind his shades, but he doesn't object, "You can take my room."

"Oh no, don't worry about that!" Jade objected, "I'm perfectly fine on the couch!"

"That wouldn't be very gentlemanly of me. Seriously Jade, I've fallen asleep on the couch plenty of times." You tell her.

"If you're both going to be so damn insistent on this shit, Harley, you can have Egbert's room and Egbert can sleep in mine." Comes Dave's voice.

You hadn't expected him to speak up, but he did. And his idea was not going to fly with you, "Dave, no way. I'm not going to take your room. We have a perfectly good couch that I've offered to take!"

For a moment, you can read Dave's expression, even with the shades his brother gave him on. Just briefly it looked like he was going to argue about it, but he put his hands up in surrender, "If that's what floats your boat, whatever dude."

When that was settled, a silence settled over the room. The reality of what you were going to do the next day hit the three of you simultaneously. You took to watching the other two. Jade was visibly nervous, worrying her lower lip with her teeth, her eyes darting around the room as though someone was going to break in to the house and bust your plan in that very moment. Dave had gone back to looking as impassive as usual, but after living with him for the time you have, you're able to identify a tenseness in the way he sat that wasn't there before. You wondered slightly how you looked then, but you knew that no matter whether you looked outright scared or not, your eyes would betray you.

The silence remains for a few more minutes until you decided to break it, mumbling something about making dinner. You got up and went to the kitchen to start cooking for all three of you, and the task, something so mechanical, so exact, got your mind off of the situation as you prepared the meal. When the food is nearly done, you hear Dave enter the kitchen to set the table. It's just another thing about living with him that normally you wouldn't even notice, but that night, it makes you smile. Dave knows you, and you know him, better than any of your other friends, and knowing that he was going to go through with this with you made everything seem a little lighter. You knew you could count on him.

When dinner is served the three of you eat, trying to lighten the mood by talking about your final classes. It's almost as if nothing were different than before everything went to hell, minus Rose not being there with you. A few times you and Jade were even able to laugh at some of the quips made by one of the table's occupants. You enjoyed it as long as you could, knowing this would be the last time for a while you would have a moment like this.

After the three of you decided that you should probably try and get some sleep. Tomorrow was an important day and you weren't about to let being tired stand in the way of your plans. Dave helped you pull some extra blankets out of one of the closets to make a bed for you on the couch. You thank him and settled on to the makeshift bed, wishing both he and Jade good sleep. The said their good nights and disappeared up the stairs.

When you laid down to try to sleep, the clock read 8:11. It was the first time in a while you had tried to go to sleep before eleven, so sleep didn't come right away. Your sleeplessness left you with time to think. To think about your plans, your friends, your life. And upon contemplating all of these things, you found yourself content with that would happen when you opened your eyes the next morning.

_Rewind_

Time stops when John closes his eyes and goes into a reverse. The events of the evening rewind, but not from the blue eyed young man's perspective. Instead, you are seeing the events of the night in reverse from a dampened point of view, as though whomever this was had something obscuring their face. And they do. For as you rewind, you become Dave Strider and see the night through his point of view. The memories stop at the point where you (Dave) and your best friend John had sat down to play video games to let off some steam. When the memory starts you are pausing the game.

You paused the game when Harley had walked in to your apartment. The final member of your group not currently in a cell had joined you, and you knew that there were things to discuss. After hearing her report on her day and hearing the small skirmish about sleeping arrangements, in which you put in your own idea in to, a silence settles upon the group. You don't let any emotion flit across your face as you watch your friends. Being the cool kid, you couldn't let how you were feeling effect your judgment. Egbert looked as though he had everything under control, except when you looked at his eyes from behind the security of your shades, where you saw the fears he had cross his eyes. More important to you however was the look you caught Jade giving you. While she looked nervous, she managed to get your attention. Her eyes read clearly the message of: "_We need to talk_."

John is the first to break the silence, and his disappearance into the kitchen is the perfect opportunity for you to talk to Jade without him overhearing. You turned to Jade and she immediately began whispering, "Have you told him?"

You snorted, albeit quietly, "What the fuck was I supposed to tell him again?"

If there was anything you had to give Jade props for, it was the look she gave you when you said this, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know darn well that you remember the conversation we had the week after you and John moved in with each other."

You did remember this conversation with her. Quite perfectly. You remember every detail of it.

About a week after you and John had begun living together, you had asked Jade to join you at the small cafe that had been your group's meeting place for the past few months. She obliged you immediately and met you exactly on time. The two of you had ordered your coffee and a muffin for Jade before taking your usual table that was furthest away from prying ears. For a few minutes, you sat in silence, just drinking your coffee. Until she spoke up, "What is this about, Dave? Why did you only ask me here and not the others?"

You sighed and put your cup down, "Rose had already figured it out and John can't know. He wouldn't understand. But I trust you, so I need to tell you this."

She nodded and you took a deep breath before picking up where you left off, " I know you know how the Awakening happens. You learn your gender, parts of your future, your name, and your sexuality. And I know you know that some people have reason to fear the last one. Well when it came down to that for me, I promised myself that one day I would tell you guys. Especially because there was the possibility of it effecting you or John. It wouldn't effect Rose as much because I see her as a sister."

"Dave..." Jade had trailed off, "Are you trying to say that..."

You lowered your voice lower than it had already been, "Jade, when the voice told me my sexuality, it told me I was... it told me I was going to be a... fuck I can't even say it. But you know where I'm going with this. And it...it's becoming a bit of a problem. Fuck, Harley, the day we met John for the first time, I knew that I was going to be damned to hell. It's been a week, but we've known each other for a long time and...shit, what I'm getting at is that I...I think I may have fallen for Egbert."

Her eyes are wide and she just watched you for what felt like ages. But the shock on her face slowly dissolved into a shaky smile, "I understand. We can't help who we love. Besides, even if John had been a girl, I still wouldn't have had any chance, you still would have the same preference. All I can do now is back off and wish you luck.

You had nodded and the mood between you to lightened. And after the time that had passed between then and the moment Jade had brought it up, you knew it to be true. There was no helping it any more, you couldn't deny that you felt things for your best friend, no matter how illegal it was. But you had kept your mouth closed. You were not going to ruin anything by telling him. Instead you repressed your feelings, hoping, praying even that another guy would catch your eye. Because John was to important as a friend to lose. You would not let that happen.

However, when everything started falling apart and you began making plans to rectify the wrongs on your brother, Jake, Rose, and Kanaya, you knew that you would have to tell him. Because you needed him to know, if anything happened to you when everything went down, you wanted him to know that he had been loved. You wanted him to know exactly how much he meant to you, even if you didn't show it. And you had resolved to tell him that night that Jade had brought it to your attention. The night before everything would change.

But as the night moved on, until the point of the groups retirement to sleep in preparation of the next day, you found that even with Jade's prompting, you couldn't do it.

Because you couldn't deal with it if he ended up hating you for it.


	6. Chapter 6

A/n: Holy shit. This took a long time to write. But I'm pretty happy, I exceeded my 4000 word goal. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it was interesting to write to say the least!  
>Disclaimer: I don't own MSPA. I'm obviously not Hussie, because why would I do this and not work on actually updating HS.<p>

You wake up the next morning to a loud crashing sound from the next floor up. Ungraciously, you fall off of the couch, scrambling to untangle yourself from the blankets surrounding you. When you do, you start towards the stairs but falter. If something's going on, you might need your weapon and because of the short amount of time you've had you Strife Specibus, you don't know how to access it. But then the realization hits you that it functions in the exact same way that your Modus (if you had any control of it) works. You just have to will it to appear, and it will. After you summon up your hammer, you ascend the stairs.  
>The sight that meets you when you've gotten to the top of the stairs isn't a good one. Coming through the door to the roof are the government Imps. These non-human creatures made up the special police force that dealt with homosexuals or conspirators against the government. You knew this because you had read through more of the book you had stolen when you got the chance to. The reason the government used them, you had learned, is because they were not easily influenced. The only reason the government had any control over them was because they had taken the Imps' royalty captive.<br>There's the sound of banging coming from your door and Dave's door, and you suddenly know why when you see on of the stream of Imps touching the wall that the doors were on, using its strange powers to halt any movement on the wall. You realize that in order to free your friends so you can escape, you have to defeat the Imps. Alone. Using your weapon for the very first time with no practice. At least if if had been Dave, he had experience with swords, his brother had been a soldier for a while and had taught him how to use a blade if Dave were to ever get a Strife Specibus.  
>You're basically praying for a miracle as you faced the now 7 Imps. Shaking slightly, you hefted the hammer in your hands, readying yourself. And when one came close enough, you swing. There's a sickening crack, and you realize that you made impact with the Imp's head. Black blood spatters you and parts of the hallway. The disappears as though it was only a shadow, but its blood remained. And suddenly, you find the strength to take down the rest of them. Some charge at you asking for it, others you go after yourself and within four minutes, the only Imp remaining is the one keeping you from your friends. It goes down easily, not able to continue holding your friends and fight you off at the same time. When Dave and Jade join you in the hall, weapons ready, you stand alone, covered in black blood and breathing unevenly.<br>"Jesus fuck, we've got to leave. _Now_." Said Dave, scanning the hall for any other potential threats. You and Jade both nod in agreement and the three of you take off down the stairs. The plan was to leave through the garden as you had to go and steal the book, so you leave out of the sliding doors. You're half way through the garden when you freeze and remember something. You forgot to pack the god damn bunny Dave had sent you before you had met. It meant a lot to you and you were not going to leave it. Without missing a step, you turn around and dash back towards the apartment.  
>You only make it a few strides back towards the apartment when you find yourself being heckled by more Imps. In an effort to not waste time, you start out by just dodging them and continuing on. But this only hindered you, because the Imps that were behind you caught on to what you had done and began coming after you from behind. It doesn't take long and you're surrounded. You strike out with your hammer, destroying several Imps with one swing. But more take your place, and the others around them begin to attack you, cutting you with their claws. The adrenaline pumping through your veins kept the pain at bay, but you knew that your situation wasn't good. If you didn't do something soon, you were going to be captured. Or worse.<br>But you didn't have to do anything. Imps began falling of their own accord, slashed in half before they disappear into what you hope is oblivion. It takes your brain a moment to catch up with the fact that someone is helping you. You just don't know who. There's a flash of red in front of you as the Imp in front of you falls at the hands of your savior. Your mind is reeling and you turn to help them take out the remaining creatures.  
>When there are none of the black creatures remaining you stop, panting and trying to regain your breath. A familiar voice permeates the air and you feel a hand on your shoulder, "What the <em>fuck <em>do you think you're doing Egbert."  
>You turn to face Dave, guilt surging through you. So it had been him who had been your mysterious savior. It was kind of hard to believe that he could move with that speed and handle his sword with such ease. He wasn't kidding about the rooftop training with his brother. And the tone of his voice meant that the anger you heard in his voice wasn't a joke either, " I'm sorry! I forgot something really important back at the apartment and I didn't even think! It means a lot for me and I had to go back for it. And I realize now how stupid it was and I feel really bad, because I know you and Jade were probably freaking out because I disappeared so suddenly without telling anyone. Jeeze, I'm so stupid, I wouldn't have even known where to find you! Where's Jade? God, I can't even believe how stupid I was!"<p>

"You're not stupid John." He says, "But you need to think. If you don't think from now on, there are bigger consequences than there were when you were just a normal citizen. But now's not the time for this, go get whatever it is that you forgot and hurry. We're going to meet up with Jade in a while. Now go, I'll watch your back."

You nod and hurry back to the apartment, Dave following you. He waits at the glass doors for you, poised to take on any Imps that would appear. You yourself hold your weapon at the ready as you slip up the stairs and into your room. It doesn't take you long to find and Captchalogue the bunny. Everything goes off without a hitch and you know that now you can leave.  
>Hastily, you return to where Dave is. He nods to acknowledge your presence and takes off at a pace far slower than the blinding one he had used while fighting. You know in the back of your head that he's doing this so you could follow. And you do, doing your best to keep up with him. You climb the wall when you get to it and then the two of you are on the streets. He seems to know where he's going and you can do nothing but follow closely. Some people give you odd looks, but you ignore them.<br>You make it to what seems to be your destination. You're at the outskirts of town in the shipping district. Dave leads you to a small building, set apart slightly from the others. He leads you around the back to a small door and opens it. The two of you step in to the building. It's dimly lit and a bit dusty, but as soon as you step in, you see the reason you're here. In the center of the room is a craft that you've never seen before. It reminds you of the Lightning Bug hover vehicles that were used for long distance travel, but it's different in the way that it looks like a regular motorcycle as well.  
>"Damn, Jade really hooked us up." Says Dave, "I didn't think any of these existed any more."<br>"What exactly is it?" You ask.  
>"It's a Nakodile hover-cycle." He says simply.<br>You have no clue what this is, but don't feel like asking about it. Instead, another question pops into your head, a more important question, "Dude, where's Jade?"  
>He looks around, visibly startled by the realization that Jade is indeed not present. You seem to realize it before he does, but something else seems to be missing along with Jade. The dust surrounding the hover vehicle was settled in a thin film on the floor. But next to it, a large portion of the floor isn't covered by dust. A space large enough for another, however, different vehicle. Realization strikes you and Dave at the same time and you groan in unison. He's the first to put words to your frustration, "She left without us."<br>You nod, dumbfounded at least slightly that she would do that. It amazes you to even think that she would go off alone. She knew just as well as you and Dave that this was dangerous. But she, like you when you went back to the apartment, didn't seem to care about the consequences. It reminds you how alike you are and you nearly forget what you're supposed to be doing while you think about it. But both you and Dave are roused to your senses when you hear a large sound that you quickly identify as an explosion when you feel the vibrations under your feet. You realize that it had to be the distraction Jade had asked her friend to set off. And that it was now or never that you and Dave were going to get the chance to leave.  
>Without a word Dave hurries to start the vehicle, while you push the switch that will open the large overhead door to let you out. He gets the Nakodile running and after you've opened the door, you're joining him on the back of it. It seems like he pauses to think for a second, but Dave quickly passes you a helmet and puts one on himself. You can't hear him well, but you think you hear a '<em>you'd better hold on<em>', and you slip your arms around his waist and hold on as you accelerate from zero to sixty in three seconds flat.  
>It's exhilarating, you find, to ride on something so fast under such circumstances. The wind whips around you as you speed towards the wall that separates the city from the rest of the world. Sirens pierce the air and your helmet but they're going the opposite direction. You have no idea where you're going, but Dave seems to, and the fact that you're pressed right up against him is reassuring.<p>

The wall looms closer as the seconds tick by and you wonder just how you're going to get out of the city. It's when you're less than fifty meters away that you realize that Dave hasn't slowed down. The physics you learned in school finally make sense in your head when you realize with your current velocity and the stopping distance in relevance to it, you wont be able to stop in time. You're scared as hell and you brace for the inevitable impact. It had never occurred to you that this would be the kind of thing that would put and end to your plan to save your friends. Getting caught, maybe, but not this. You close your eyes and wait for the end.  
>But the end doesn't come and even after the few moments you predict you had left you can still feel yourself firmly seated and holding on to Dave. Your eyes snap open and immediately go wide. The Nakodile is quite literally driving you up a wall. The wall to the outside world that is. A cheer bubbles up in your chest and you let it out. There was so much to be happy about right now that there was no point in holding it in. You're honestly just happy to just be alive. As you descend down the other side of the wall, you keep your eyes open to watch the maneuvers Dave uses to make sure you don't crash into the ground.<br>Then you're off, speeding over a desolate and barren stretch of land in what you are fairly certain is the right direction towards the camp Derse. You knew Prospit was in the north and Derse was in the south, and you knew that Derse was your destination by looking at the sun. The thing about starting at either camp, however, was that you had no clue who you would be able to free first. There were no clues as to who was carted off to which camp. Or, for that matter, which camp Jade had left for on her own. You hoped upon hope that you would reach both camps with plenty of time to spare before anyone else suffered.  
>You speed over the wasteland for hours, losing track of time as you went along. You watch the sky as you ride along. It makes you sad to think that the sky was the only thing with color here. The land itself had been drained of its color and life long ago when the human race had depleted much of the world's natural resources. '<em>That's how we got to be here, now<em>,' you think. If the resources hadn't been used up, people wouldn't have had to switch over to synthetic resources. While, yes, it was more practical and inexpensive to just be able to use an alchemiter to retrieve products, but that's also how people had come into power. Those with the goods and means to access and create them rose to power and abused it. It made you shutter to think about how everyone had been blinded to how wrong it was that the people in power had used it to promote their own agenda.  
>Fog begins to creep across the land as the sun sets. It's chilling on your bare arms, and you being shivering. You ache places you never expected to ache in. But it's all explainable by the long period of time you had been riding the Nakodile. Not once did Dave stop or slow down, and you knew that it was for the better. The further away from the city you got, the less chance of you being caught. And the quicker you could help your friends. This doesn't do anything to help the exhaustion that threatens to overcome you.<br>Dave must have sensed the change in your grip around him, because before you realize it, he's slowed down to a stop. The landing from hovering several feet in the air is less than graceful, but you're glad when you can slip off of the vehicle and on to firm ground. You're legs nearly give out, but Dave is there to catch you and keep you upright. It takes a few moments, but you regain your composure enough to remove your helmet and to begin to search through your modus for the tent you know you packed. Dave's actions are similar, he pulls out wood and the materials to start a fire with relative ease, unlike you who accidentally ejects several items before the tent is released from the modus. You sigh and pull a few other things such as a hoodie that you'll need for the night and take a seat next to your friend by the fire where he is preparing a meal.  
>The two of you eat in complete silence, and remain silent even after. It's odd, the silence that stands between you. It's unlike the usual silence when you're home together and able to just enjoy each other's company without words. It's like a thick wall that you want to bust down with your hammer, but can't find the means by which to do so. But Dave surprises you by breaking down the wall himself, "Do you regret this yet?"<br>You're shocked a little at his question. The words that fall out of your mouth are indignant at first, but when you realize this, you soften them, "No! How could I? I mean, Dave, I came of my own accord, and I'm not about to turn back now. I would never just leave my friends like that. You guys are all really important to me, probably the most important thing in my life."

He's silent for a few moments, but you see the change as he goes from tense to relaxed before he speaks again, " Alright. Just making sure dude. Now that we have that shit taken care of, some other things need to be established. We can't have any secrets any more because while I trust you with my life, our trust has to be the most absolute thing. There can't be a single fuckin' doubt because this will work just about as well as a hot air balloon with a huge gaping hole if there is."  
>"Alright, what do we need to be honest about then?" You ask.<br>"First off," He says, "I need to know if there was anything during your Awakening that you need to tell me. Because I'm gonna tell you this flat out and lay my cards out on the table now. During my Awakening, the voice said some shit about being the rad puppet master over the hands of time, whatever that means. And dude, don't flip your shit or anything but..."  
>He stops, obviously nervous. You flash him a reassuring smile, "You can tell me Dave, I promise I wont freak out, no matter what it is."<br>Dave nods and pushes his sunglasses up to rest on top of his head. Just like he had done any other time he was frustrated with something, " I'll put it this way Egbert, if I had ended up being arrested, I would have been sent straight to Derse faster than you can come up with an excuse as to why Nic Cage is not a terribad actor."  
>It takes you a few moments to process what he's said. But when it hits you, it hits you like you imagine a Nakodile would at top speed, "So you're...you're a homosexual then?"<br>All he does is nod. He doesn't say a word. You let it soak in for a few seconds before you do what comes naturally; you move closer to him and hug him tightly. He stiffens in your arms, as if anticipating something else. But when he realizes that it's just a hug he relaxes. You don't know how much time passes while you sit like that, but it feels as though time passes by incredibly slowly.  
>If you didn't feel the need to say something, you would have just stayed like that, "Dave, you're really important to me. Something silly like that isn't going to make me not trust you or not want to be around you or some lame shit like that. What kind of dumpass friend would I be if I did something like that? Besides, what the hell do you think we're even doing out here? We're saving our other friends who are also homosexuals. Why would I treat you any different? I'm behind you 100%."<br>The firelight plays off of his eyes and you swear you see his lips twitch into a brief smile, "Thanks John. It means a lot to me."  
>"No problem Dave. You wanted to know about my Awakening, right? Well the voice told me that my friends would be important to me. One would be someone I can confide in, one will show up right when I need them, and that I'd find love with one of them. Which is kinda strange if you ask me. But anyways, it said something about me being the 'keeper of the wind' and going on a long journey but it couldn't talk about that. And it said something weird like that something that I feared was true, but I don't know what it meant by that. And that's basically the gist of it." You confide to him.<br>Upon hearing what you have to say, Dave becomes silent and seemingly lost in thought. Eventually the silence begins to lull you to sleep. You begin nodding off, reminding you just how tired you are. You stand and stretch, catching Dave's attention. He nods to acknowledge that he knows what you're doing and would be joining you shortly. Only moments later you're wrapped up in your blue sleeping bag and are sound asleep.

As John falls asleep, your viewpoint changes. You're now Dave Strider and you are contemplating what just went down. Over and over, your mind runs over every last bit of your conversation with John, trying to make the puzzle pieces fit together. Deep down, you're glad that he told you he'd stand by you. But right now, other things are bothering you.  
>The mystery of the relevance of time and wind strikes you as odd, and the mentions of a journey in John's Awakening. However, the last part that he had told you as well as the relationship between friends was what had your mind reeling. There was nothing that you knew of John feared. You recall every conversation you had with him before and after his Awakening and there's only one thing that relatively fits. You come to the realization of what it had meant when he himself couldn't. But you wouldn't tell him. He'd have to find out on his own.<br>As for the other part, you had your suspicions as well, especially with this new light that shone upon John's fate in your mind. Either he was going to make new friends to fill the spaces or you, Jade, and Rose fit the bill. And if that was so, well, the very thought did strange things to your heart. You could eliminate both Jade and Rose from the love interest category right off the bat considering Rose's predicament, what John had said about Jade being too like his sister, and the new information you had. It left only one person if your assumptions were right. And you make a decision right then and there.  
>You open your Modus and bring out a pen and a piece of paper. You write and write until your hand has all but stopped moving, until you're content with the flow of words on the paper. The sheet and the pen are quickly shoved back into your Modus with the promise to yourself that tomorrow you would make sure John received the page from you with very specific instructions. After that, you retire to the tent you share with him and curl up in your sleeping bag. But not without a quick whisper of good night into the object of you affection of the last few month's ear.<p>

You wake up in the morning and you view the world once more as John Egbert. Dave is asleep next to you when you wake up. He looks so much more vulnerable in his sleep than when he's awake, and it brings a smile to your lips. Instead of waking him, you take the initiative to get up and start a fire. It takes a while, as you find you're not very good at making a fire at all, but eventually you're cooking something that resembles a decent breakfast over a small crackling fire.  
>The smell of food and smoke must have roused him, because soon Dave is seated next to you at the fire and accepting his ration of the food. You eat in silence, there's not much to talk about this early. But it isn't the sharp silence like the silence last night. It's back to the companionable silence that both of you need to get up and begin the day with. After you've eaten, you both pack up quickly ( again with some trouble controlling your Modus, which inspires a laugh on both your and Dave's parts) and you find yourself walking to the Nakodile for another day's ride.<br>Dave stops you before you can pull your helmet on and pulls a sheet of paper out of his Modus, "Listen close Egbert. I want you to put this into your modus. The only reason you should take it out and read it is if something's happened to me, you're in trouble, or you figure out what your Awakening meant. If you open it otherwise, I'll make sure that bunny of yours gets it. Got it?"  
>You nod and the two of you pull on your helmets as you return to your spot on the Nakodile to begin what you will always remember as the longest day of your life.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: whooooo, chapter 7. A lot of shit goes down here. I hope you guys like this! Feel free to comment all you want, because comments make my heart go doki doki. Yes, I know I'll be shot for that later. It's nearly 4 am, I have work in the morning, and right now IDGAF.  
>Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. Homestuck.<p>

It's black. Everything. You know your eyes are open, but you can't see one damn thing. When you move, you find that your wrists and feet are bound. Everything about this screams '_notgoodnotgoodnotgood'. _It takes a lot of effort, but you sit up with a groan. Your head hurts, it's worse than anything you've ever felt, and so does the rest of your body. It takes all of the restraint you have not to cry out in pain, because you don't know what will happen if you do.  
>After a while, you find a way to ignore the throbbing of your head and the soreness of every other part of your body. You also come to the realization that while you may be sitting, you're moving. The floor under you shakes and you've felt the occasional bump penetrate your perception of the movement of where you are. It's not a good sign. In fact, it's probably a really bad sign. You're not sure where you're being taken, you don't know who's taking you there, and probably the worst thing, you have absolutely no clue where Dave is. Which by ever single definition means that your mission has failed.<br>You're trying to remember exactly what went wrong. What you could have done to have kept this from happening. It would benefit you to start from the time when you first saw Derse's towers come in to view. You close your eyes and let yourself slip into the memory.

It had been several hours since you and Dave had set out once more across the bleak, barren land. The air was still thick with the ever-present fog that seemed to cling to any and every foreign object that passed through it. Even with the extra layers you had put on, you find your dampened clothing sticking to your skin. It's one of the worst sensations and you've begun to resent the white clouding that surrounds you. Occasionally you just close your eyes and think about the warm sunlight and playful breeze of your once home city.  
>As the time passes by, you start to notice things. The first, which brings you back out of your fantasy, is when you feel the fog around you become substantially lighter now than it had before when it pressed against you. When you open your eyes and look around, you can actually see for several meters out, something you had not been able to do since the day before. What you see now is also different. Small areas, barely even visual as you pass by, are covered by wispy blades of grass. Although it was only small, this sign of life gave you hope that maybe, just maybe, you were getting close. Dave must sense it too, because he slows the Nakodile down a bit. Within 20 minutes of your discovery of grass, you see it.<br>You went into this not having any clue what to expect when you reached Derse. But it certainly wasn't this. The towers and archway made of purple stone amaze you. The architecture is beautiful, and it looks just like the pictures of the cities of old that you had read about. From where you were, it didn't look like it could possibly be a camp for those treasonous to the government's laws at all. In fact, it might have been one of the most beautiful things you had ever seen. And to top the glory of Derse off, when you looked at it, you didn't look straight ahead. Bound to the land by chains that glittered in the sunlight that pierced the clouds, Derse floated a good 200 meters above the ground.  
>It's only a glimpse of seeing the floating city that you're able to see before you once again can only see fog. A protest rises in your throat, but falls silent when Dave brings the craft to a stop. The landing is a lot smoother than the last time, and as you slide off of the Nakodile, you give him a small nod of approval. In only a matter of minutes, both of you have extricated yourselves from the bike, your helmets, and your damp clothing in exchange for sitting next to the vehicle in warm, clean clothing that you had put in your Modus, while a panel on the Nakodile opened so that it could recharge itself on the few rays of sunlight that by chance pierced the area you had stopped in.<br>"We need a plan." Dave says a few minutes after you've begun to unwind from the hours you had spent on the vehicle.  
>You nod in agreement. There was no way that you could get to Derse without a plan and a way to infiltrate without detection, "Well. Climbing one of the chains is definitely out of the question. Do you have anything in mind? I mean, this is more your area of expertise than mine."<br>"Well," he says, pausing and taking a deep breath, "There's an option that I've been contemplating. But I only want it to come to that as a last resort. Otherwise, I'm still formulating how the hell we're going to pull this off. I mean seriously, dude, did you know it was going to be a flying city? If your answer is yes, than your a filthy liar Egbert. Woe is me, I'd be a poor maiden trapped out here with a man I can't even trust."  
>He smirks a bit and you can't help but to let out a string of laughs and give his arm a light punch. He laughs too, and it makes the moment even better. Even in the face of danger, you're glad he's the same friend you've known for such a long time. He recovers from laughing first, and when you settle down as well, you finally reply to him, "No way! I mean, it's like something out of a movie! I didn't even think there was the technology to do something like that. It's like taking our hover-tech to a whole new level! Dave did you even see those buildings? They were pretty much right out of our textbook. Maybe we found the wrong place, because it doesn't look like it could be a place they'd send people to be punished at all!"<br>"No, it doesn't, does it?" he asks, his voice dropping.  
>The small smile that he had worn for a few minutes drops from his face. The frown that replaces it plays at your heartstrings and causes you to pull him into a hug. You know he's taking the whole situation harder than you are given his...own situation for lack of better idea of what to file it as in your mind, and you want to do everything to comfort him, "Everything is going to turn out just fine Dave, I promise."<p>

"But what if it doesn't?" he asks you, "What if it doesn't and we can't help anyone? What if we end up in a worse situation trying to right this than they are now? Part of me wishes it had been me rather than Lalonde, Dirk, English, or Lalonde's girlfriend. But the other part screams over that, because if it had been me up there in the floating city, then someone else who means a lot to me would suffer too. To be honest with you Egbert, I'm just fuckin' scared that we're going to trash this and all of our efforts are going to go to hell. I'm scared that I can't save anybody."  
>You look at him, astounded at his statement, "Dave, jeeze. Cut it out. First off, I know that we're not going to fail. It's just a feeling I get, but there's no way we're going to fail at this. It means too much to both of us, and Jade, and it will to the others when they find out to fail. And next, I'm glad it wasn't you. It doesn't make me happy that any of our friends are in this situation to begin with, but I don't think I could do any of this without you. We're going to save everyone Dave, that's a thing that is definitely going to happen. You're not in this alone."<br>For a moment he stays as he was before he moves to return your hug rather than his stiff acceptance of it. His head finds its way to your shoulder and you hold him there. You can tell he's not crying, which you figure is a good thing. The two of you stay like that for several minutes before he pulls back from the hug, "I guess if we don't know what we're doing with this just yet that we should probably just put up camp here until we think of something, right?"  
>"Well yeah." you agree, "Sounds pretty good. But before I get unpacking shit from my Modus, would you tell me what your backup plan is? I really want to know in case we have to do that."<br>"All I can tell you," he says slowly, "is that it has to do with that letter I gave you. If we have to do it, I'll have you read the letter and we'll go from there, alright?"  
>You nod and both you and he get down to the business of setting up shop for the night. You have to fuck around with your modus again, and the act of building your camp feels almost normal as you go about your business and Dave goes about his. And when you're both done, you seat yourself on the ground to relax. He joins you for a little while, but you're both restless and can't stay in one spot. It starts with him standing and pacing. Next you joined him by just standing and leaning on the Nakodile. But finally neither of you could take it, and he mumbled something about going to check out the chains that kept Derse from floating away, and you mumbling about taking a walk in return. He leaves in one direction and you go in the other. Before you leave, you take a wad of blue string out of your Modus and tie it to the firmly grounded Nakodile so that you could find your way back.<br>It's calming for you to just walk. You don't have to think about anything except putting one foot in front of the other. And you don't. All you focus on is walking until you find a patch of grass. It makes you smile when you reach down to touch the plant, like a reassurance that even here, life was possible. You had known for a while that you weren't going to be able to return to the city you grew up in after everything, and the time that you had spent watching the barren ground go by made you wistful of your past life there. It was as if the land had given up hope, but with the grass you knew there was hope, because despite the odds, it was trying. Just like you. Because back at the apartment, you had no clue if you were even cut out for this, in fact, you know you aren't.  
>You take a seat on the grass and look towards the sky to try and find more relief there. But it the sky isn't visible from where you sit, obscured by fog. The position and lack of movement on your part bring back the thoughts you had tried to keep at bay. Not a single idea for a plan to get to Derse comes to your mind. You find yourself wondering what Dave's backup plan was. And you realize that if you want to know, there's a simple way to find out. It's sitting right in your Modus, and the temptation is so great. You can't even handle it, and you have no option. Dave is going to be angry at you later, but you'll handle that when it comes.<br>For once, your modus doesn't fuck up when you pull the note out of it. It comes out just as you had put it in, and for a few moments it just rests in your hands. It's all you can take to not unfold it and read it right away. Your hands shake a little as you run your fingers over the folds of the sheet as if opening straight away is a bad idea. It's a short lived notion however, and you being to unfold the crease.  
>A red flash darts out in front of you and you find that the letter has been whisked away into the hands of its author, who stands not even two feet from where you're seated with a grim look on his face, " Egbert, I'm not dead and nothing's happened. I thought we had an agreement that you wouldn't open it unless that happened, or I gave you permission? Way to go jackass, there goes a bit of my trust."<br>" I couldn't help it!" you say indignantly, "I mean, seriously Dave, you give me a letter of some sort and tell me not to read it unless those circumstances happen. And then you go and say that one of the only options you came up with had to do with me reading whatever you wrote! That's pretty much just asking me to read it! I don't want to be on the side of a plan like that where I'm the last to know what the hell is going on! I trust you without a doubt Dave Strider, and I want you to trust me enough to include me in things like this _before _it's imperative that I know them!"  
>"I can't let you read this yet. I'm sorry John, I just can't. I can't risk you reacting to it just yet. There's a reason behind the way this has to be, so just fucking deal with it, alright?" He snapped back.<br>Both of you are silent for a few moments. You hadn't expected this to happen, and you knew he couldn't have either. You want to apologize, but you know you're right. This is something you need to know, and he has to stop hiding things if you want any plan to free your friends to work out. But if what he's saying is true, you know you have to trust him with this, because it might me the success or failure of the mission.  
>You are the first to speak up, the bad feeling that welled up in the pit of your stomach finally getting to you, "I'm sorry Dave. I won't look again unless I can meet those requirements. I'm just kind of stressed when it comes to something that could potentially make or break this. That is unless you suddenly have a different plan."<br>"Actually, I do." he says. The frown on his face has turned into a straight, thin line of stoicism that you were used to, and it made you hope that everything would be okay between you, " Derse is kept in the air with a magnet system. If we take our the lower magnet, it'll come crashing down. Obviously no one would get hurt, because gravity wouldn't allow anyone to exist on the lower half without them falling the insane distance back to the ground, so don't worry your pretty head about that."  
>You grin at him, hope blossoming in your chest, "That's brilliant Dave! It's perfect, because that'll cause enough of a distraction for us to get in and others to get out!"<br>"There's only one problem." He says.  
>"What?" you ask. Of course it wouldn't be that simple it was never...<br>" Well, the control station for the magnets is seriously fucking guarded. Dude, there are these huge god damn Imps guarding it. They're massive."  
>" We can take them." You say with resolve, "I know we could take on the world together. A couple of big Imps are a pain in the ass, but I know we can do it!"<br>He smiles at you and nods in agreement, "We strike at dawn?"  
>"We strike at dawn." you agree.<br>"Sweet." he says. He extends his hand that's still holding the note to you and you take it, "You'd better not try and read it until the time is right this time Egbert. Got it?"  
>You nod, and that's the end of the conversation. Both of you follow your blue string back to your tent ( which is how he found you in the first place, he informs you), and relax for the rest of your waking hours; just talking, eating a meal prepared over the fire he built, and eventually falling asleep in your respective sleeping bags.<p>

The next morning you wake up and you're on the move again right away. You get up, pack anything that's not being used and cook, waking Dave up hastily after you've finished cooking so that you can sit down, eat, and pack up everything else. You've finished within a matter of a half of an hour, and you're soon hurdling through fog on the Nakodile towards Derse and the control building. It doesn't take long considering that Dave walked almost completely there the evening before, but when the small building comes into view, you gasp, only audible to you because of the helmet you wear. The Imps are gargantuan, standing taller than the building they guarded and together nearly the length of said facility. This wasn't at all what you'd expected they would be, and you're nervous as hell, but you resolve to not let that stop you.  
>You and Dave dismount the Nakodile before the Imps see you, and make your way quickly to a vantage point around the corner of where one of the two is standing. You know that the element of surprise will be key to taking down the first Imp, and the second one would be sheer skill and luck after that. On Dave's first signal, you bring your hammer out of your Strife Specibus, and on his second, you round the corner with him and begin your assault. Unlike his practiced blows with his sword, you rely on luck that your hammer will do damage. Somehow, your and Dave's skills are an effective combination on the first Imp, because it goes down without a hitch. You gain some black stains of the creatures blood on your clothes and face, but it isn't a concern, because the second one comes around the gray building, presumably having smelled it's comrade's defeat. The creature let out a deafening roar, but after the defeat of the first one, you're no longer scared.<br>This one puts up much a better fight. When Dave goes to attack it, his speed seems to do very little for him, as although it's blinding to you, the Imp seems to be able to fend off every single attack. You charge in to help him out, swinging your hammer at the creature and hoping to do damage to it. It's sudden, but you hear a sickening crack, only to look over to find Dave slumped against the wall. You know that the Imp must have gotten hold of him and had thrown him. It makes you go white with rage, and suddenly your wild swings are charged with even more power than before. When there's an opening when the creature tries to take a swing at you, you take it, bringing the hammer to bash down over its head and more of the black blood drenches you as the damned thing disappears. There was the urge to let out a cry of triumph, but something in your gut wretches when you remember how lifeless Dave looked slumped against the wall.  
>You make it over to him in less than five steps, turning him so he's completely his back so you can assess the damage. He has a few cuts on his face, and his back will probably bruise up, but you're more concerned about the blood, red and so different from that of the Imp's, covers the hand you move to lift up the back of his head with. Internally you're freaking the fuck out, but the more rational part of your brain picks up the slack and forces your body into movement. You can't stay out here and you know it, so you pick him up as gently as you can and locate the door to the building, opening it and entering. Ever so gently, you set him down before barricading the door with a near by table for good measure. Then you rush back over to him, pulling all of the medical supplies out of your Modus and bandaging the areas he's bleeding from quickly and efficiently. After that, your mind goes back to worry mode, and you find yourself crying with his head in your lap.<br>Every bit of your mind wishes it was you and not him that had been hurt. It scares the hell out of you to see him lying with his head in your lap, motionless. You check his pulse, and it's still there, weaker than usual, but a good sign none the less. A few tears drop on to his cheek from your face, and you wipe them away quickly. It forces you to notice that his shades were gone, probably on the ground somewhere, potentially smashed to bits. You know when he wakes up that it will annoy him to no end, but now you just want him to wake up. For a while you just sit there with your head in your hands, crying.  
>You try to calm down a bit, forcing the sobs you'd let out into hiccups. It's been nearly 25 minutes and he hasn't woken up, and it scares the hell out of you. At this point you don't care how you get reassurance that everything is going to be okay, but you need it. The situation completely deems the actions you take as a plausible reason for it. You open your Modus and take out the letter he gave you. Your hands really shake this time, in fear rather than the nervousness of being caught the last time. The paper unfolds with ease, and you read the red letters scrawled across the page in Dave's handwriting:<p>

_Dear John,  
>If you're reading this, either something happened or I finally had the balls to tell you to read this. It's probably the first one, and that fucking sucks. First off dude, calm down and stop panicking. It's not going to get you anywhere right now. Next, take a deep breath and if you're not sitting down, I suggest it, because what you're about to read is going to be a lot to handle.<em>

You follow the advice written on the page before going on reading.

_So the reason I'm writing this is because I'm too much of a lameass to actually tell you it. But here goes nothing. Remember when we talked before you underwent your Awakening about how it was either you or Harley that were going to worm your girlish ways into my cold, irony filled heart? And do you remember when I told you about my Awakening and how I'm definitely a homo? Dude, if you haven't caught on already, I've just seriously lowered the playing-field down for you Egbert. That's right, even if you haven't guessed it, it's you who wormed your way into my heart, dumpass. I love you Egbert, I have for a while now. I didn't want to tell you because I knew that even before your Awakening you were afraid of the possibility of being gay. But after you told me about your awakening, I knew I could tell you. I love you and for now that's all I have to say about that. If you want to stay best bro, fine, if not, that's cool too. But the ball is in your court now. Keep your head up no matter what you're going through while reading this. I'll be there for you no matter what.  
>Love,<br>Dave Stider._

Tears threaten to well up in your eyes again. He loves you. He loves you and he didn't tell you. He kept it a secret because he cared about you and didn't want to lose you. And now, there he lay, in your lap, his breathing faint and his eyes still closed. A million emotions pass through you in the moment. The most prominent of these being one you can't name. But despite your fear and anger at the situation, you feel this warm feeling building in you and taking over. And there you make a conscious decision. You move your head down and kiss him so very, very softly on the lips. Tears stream down your face again, but for a different reason this time.  
>It's amazing, and it feels just right. Motion stirs you out of the complete grasp of your emotions, and you feel him waking below you and waking to kiss you back. You nearly sob in relief and break this kiss to wipe your eyes of the tears. He smiles weakly at you and opens his mouth to speak, "Why the waterworks Egbert? I'm alive dude, no need to act like I've gone to join the Devil in the innermost depths of hell. And hell, I won't complain about waking up to being kissed, but I'm kind of wondering about that too."<br>You let out a shaky laugh, "God, I was so scared. You looked like you were nearly dead and it scared me so much Dave. That Imp threw you against the wall and knocked you out and you were bleeding. I didn't know what to do, so I read your letter. You're so fucking stupid you know that. You should have just told me, and everything would have been just fine. Jesus Dave. I don't know just yet if I can tell you that I love you back, but I'm willing to try. Is that alright?"  
>"More than alright," he says, "It's fan-fucking-tastic."<br>You both laugh a little and you move in for another short kiss before you realize that you really need to get back on task, Dave becoming what you guess is your boyfriend or not, "I know I'm asking you when you're just waking up and shit, but dude, we've got to do this and get out of here. Do you think with some help you can stand and show me what we need to do?"  
>He nods and you do just that. You get up and help him to his feet, slinging one of his arms around your shoulders to handle some of his weight for him. He points to each switch or button and tells you what you need to do, and finally you progress to the last button. You bring yourself to press it and bring Derse down from the sky, but as you do there's a splintering sound as the front door is broken down. Small Imps rush in to the building, and there isn't a damn thing you or Dave can do about it. You're swimming in a sea of black, and one of those black masses must have had something with it, because you feel something heavy hit the back of your head before you pass out.<p>

A/N: Yes, a second note. This was inspired by this lovely fanart and some of my favorite artists and fans who give me a kick in the pants to get me to work:  
>capricious-chai(dot)tumblr(dot)compost/15997424769


	8. Chapter 8

A/n: I wish I could have gotten this out sooner, but I didn't. This chapter's rather short, however, I ended it where I did for a reason. There should be another update really soon though! Also, I'd like to issue a public apology for being a douche about some review things. I feel really bad for saying some things I did and I'm deeply sorry.  
>Disclaimer: As usual, I still do not own Homestuck or its characters.<p>

* * *

><p>A particularly rough bump sends you tumbling back to the floor from your once seated position. You let out a small whimper as you bash your already abused head off of said floor. But you find that ultimately the abuse to your head is a good thing, as you hear the sound of a strangled whimper not that far away from you from someone else who suffered the bump. Whoever it was, they were fairly close, Your interest is piqued and you reach out in the dark, as much as you can with your hands bound as they are. You count yourself lucky that they were bound in front of you rather than behind. A sound of shock escapes your mouth when your hand brushes against what feels like skin, but at the same time doesn't, "Hello?"<p>

"Jesus fucking Christ on a cracker," comes a surprised voice, the skin beneath your fingers jumping away from your reach, "Watch where the fuck you're touching, assmunch!"

"Sorry!" you say, your hand recoiling quickly, "It's hard to see, so I didn't know where I was reaching!"

"Fuck, fine, apology accepted. Now what the ever-loving fuck do you want." Asked the owner of the voice.

"Oh, well, I heard you when we went over that bump and I thought I might see if I was going crazy or if you were really here! And to my pleasant surprise, I think it's both!" you say, forcing as much sarcasm into your voice as you can.

"Oh no, I'm nothing but your fucking head talking to you. That's me, that voice meant to send all of the bulge-lickers like you careening over the side of a ravine. So that's what you should be doing as soon as we get out of this god damn death wagon." He (you think it's a he at least), retorts.

You laugh brightly considering the situation, "So, does this voice have a name or something? Might as well try and be friendly while I'm not walking off a cliff. My name's John, by the way.

"

"Fuck, whatever, I guess there's no harm in it," he says with a bit of hesitation, "I'm Karkat Vantas, you'd better not forget it jackass."

"Well hi to you then Karkat. Hehe, beep beep meow." you say giggling.

"What the flying-fuck?"

You shrug, even though you know he can't see it, "Car. Cat. Karkat. Beep beep meow. See what I did there? Anyways, I've got a million questions that need answering, do you think you can try and help me out with them?"

There's a grumbling sound followed by something you take as an affirmative. You begin asking your questions, "So, where are we and where are we going?"

"Are you fucking kidding? I know some of the other Dersites where absolutely fucking brain-dead, but I didn't take you to be one of them. Christ, if you really don't know, we're in the back of a convoy on the way to Prospit. Everyone that was on Derse was rounded up by the Imps after the whole thing came fucking crashing down and we all got shoved into these transfer vehicles. How the hell could you not know this?" He said.

Your heart raced. So you had accomplished your mission of bringing Derse down. And now everyone was heading to Prospit. While it felt sort of like a failure at the original intention, you knew you could make this work to your advantage. If only you could talk to Dave, you could start planning what you needed to do. For now though, you had Karkat. You don't know why, but you feel like you can trust him, that somehow, in some way, he was part of the plan.

"Okay, I have an admission to make," You whisper so that he can hear you, but anyone else who might be around can't, "I was never on Derse. Actually, it was my...wow, I don't even know what to refer to him as anymore...Anyways, Dave and I were the ones who brought Derse down. We're trying to liberate Prospit and Derse!"

"Great, they put me in a cell with a huge nutcase. Fuck my life. There's no way in hell that you di-...wait, I'm going to stop right there. Knowing my god damn luck, you're not lying and you actually did and are going to try to free everyone once we get to Prospit." Says Karkat with an elongated sigh punctuating the end of his statement.

"Yeah, you're right. I've got to talk to Dave though, because we need to make a plan." You say.

"Well chances are is that he's probably not close at all, especially if you two were caught together. But just on the off chance that that's wrong, which the possibility of that is so astronomical it could be considered up with me giving a flying fuck about anything other than getting out of this stupid place, there's a way to check. What color is your friend or whatever the fuck he is to you's symbol and shit? Terezi's a weirdass broad, but she'll help us."

"Okay...um, his color is red. How is that going to help exactly?" you ask, confused as all fuck. You can't see anything in here, how could Karkat expect his friend to see anything at all either?

"Hey Terezi," Karkat shouts, "Sorry if you were asleep or up to some shit-fuckery with whoever you got cooped up with over there, but I need you to tell me if some douchebag with a red symbol is in our vehicle! And I don't mean me!"

You hear a creepy giggle resonate from across the small area that divides what you assumed was your cell versus the cell across from you, "Oh, finally decided to help out that deliciously blueberry smelling friend of yours? It's about time! And about his cherry friend, I've got him right here! You have no clue how much I've wanted to lick this guy, but it seems like he's passed out or some shit and that would be a lot weirder than normal hehehehehehe!"

"What does she mean lick? And Dave's with her. Cherry? I'm so confused!" you splutter out.

"Oh well that. Terezi over there is blind as a fucking nightflutter-beast, so she can smell really well and can smell colors as scents or some twisted shit like that. She always rants about how "nastily rusty" I am and shit like that. And she thinks if she licks what she's smelling that it will taste like it, and that's rarely the fucking case. I can't even tell you the number of times I've been sitting there and bam, tongue shoved somewhere on me. It's abso-fucking-lutely gross." Says Karkat.

"So we're basically being lead to Dave by a blind girl who will probably lick him when he wakes up? I can tell that we're in such great hands." You say sarcastically.

"Blueberry, are you really going to say those things about a blind girl?" Comes Terezi's voice. It didn't occur to you that she could probably hear you, "How rude. I hope Cherry over here isn't as rude when I wake him up. Maybe he'll even let me lick him!"

"I didn't mean it in a bad way!" you exclaim when you realize how bad that had sounded, "And please don't lick my...you know what, I'm going to go with boyfriend until he tells me differently."

"He's not going to tell you any different unless you want anything different," you hear a familiar voice grumble from the direction Terezi's question came. Your heart races in your chest, which you ultimately think is so stupidly cliche like one of the cheesy movies you used to watch, but you dismiss those thoughts when you realize he's still speaking, "Someone want to tell me what's going on?"

You hear what you assume is Terezi cackling and probably trying to find him and Karkat seems to have shut up now that Dave was awake, so you figure it's up to you to explain what's going on to him, "We were captured when Derse fell and their transferring us with everyone else to Prospit."

"Any idea for a game plan to make this work to our advantage?" he asks.

You're about to respond that you have no idea, when Karkat seems to suddenly wake up from his non-talkative state, "Alright mister douche-canoe, here's the deal. From what I've seen, we're in a special type of transport meant to handle Terezi over there and I, and the others that are like us. We're sectioned off from the other four who are like us and are on opposite sides of a corridor behind bars. So any idea of escaping from the vehicle should just die a bloody death now, especially seeing as there are armed guards behind the doors to get out of here. I don't know about you, but I don't think laser would taste very good, and I think even Terezi would agree. Because that's who we're dealing with right now, not the stupid fucking Imps that everyone's used to, no, they brought in the fucking military. So unless you have some way you could take out those guards and shit, there's no point in even trying until we get to Prospit."

"He's right!" Pipes in Terezi. The more you think about it, the more you would have to agree. After a bit of checking, you find your entire Modus to be empty, including your Strife Specibus. Everything except the bunny you had gone back for when you were running away. And of course, no matter how much you adored the stuffed rabbit, right now it was just a useless piece of shit. Which you know is what Dave thought of it all of the time.

"Fuck," Says Dave, coming to the same realization, "Well, we'll have to wait for Prospit then. But hell if it doesn't feel like we accomplished a metric-shit-ton of nothing."

You sigh and you can feel the mood of all of the occupants in this area of the transport darken. The only sounds to permeate the air are the sounds of your cellmate's breath and the rattling of the transport as it continued over the bumpy terrain. The silence is broken when the sound of a door releasing it's looks and sliding open between your and Dave's cells, and it makes you jump. Through it comes two men, or you think they are at least, dressed in full, modified, military uniform, from what you can tell of the little bits of light coming in through the door. You probably wouldn't have been able to distinguish one for the other if not for the modifications of their outfits. The one who stepped in first, and appeared to be the leader, wore the uniform with a sash declaring him (or her, again, you can't tell), as a mayor of sort. The other has a few strips of caution tape wrapped around them. You almost start giggling but decide that it wasn't a good idea.

"You can't do this WV. You don't have the authorization." Says the one with the caution tape. You decide he's definitely a guy by the fact the his monotone is definitely lower than if they had been a female.

"Who's in charge here?" Asks the "mayor", also decidedly a male, "I'm in command of this operation, not you. The people in here, no matter how different than us are still people. I don't care if they're homosexual or have been experimented on or whatever, they're behind bars, I don't think light and releasing their bonds is going to enable them to hurt anyone or anything like that. This is an order now, turn the lights on."

There's a grumble from the caution tape guy and a the noise of a switch being flipped. And then there was light, making you wince and close your eyes at the burning sensation that comes with being in the dark for a length of time. You can see your captors more clearly. The one with the mayor sash holds a remote, and with the push of a button, he's released the bonds on your hands and feet.

"Alright, I'm doing this because I'm a good guy, but just so you know," the mayor, WV, motions to his comrade, "AR here is a fantastic shot with his rifle. Try anything and I guarantee there will be a bullet through your head faster than you can say "oh shit!". Alright?"

You nod, and he must find that adequate, because WV and AR are moving on through the next door. You shake your head, the fear that had been rising in you finally leaving. The opportunity to stretch is one you take, your muscles protesting the sudden movements, but it felt good. Looking around you can finally see your surroundings. Including your cell mate and Dave's, "Holy shit...what the fuck?"

Karkat blinks and finally realizes what your looking at, "Oh shit-nuggets, I guess I'd better start explaining, right?"


	9. Chapter 9

A/n: I just want to say before I start that this whole chapter heavily mirrors some of Homestuck's actually plot. I hope you like it.  
>Disclaimer: Homestuck = Hussie<p>

About eighteen years ago, the government called for its scientists to sink their research and development departments into two new projects. These projects were entitled Project Godtier and project Trollian. Both were meant for use for the military. And both succeeded. Scientists created two formulas, each that would allow for human modification to make better, more effective soldiers. Tests were performed on rats first, and proceeded on to larger animals. As time went by, each result became closer and closer to perfect.

Almost a year into the projects, the scientists involved were convinced that each would be effective on human subjects. Initial attempts failed, and the government had to cover up the deaths of the subjects who hadn't tolerated the injection. It was then that they brought in 16 subjects, all of which were well known for their military endeavors. Twelve of these subjects consented freely to the testing. The remaining four however, were not even aware of what was going on, in fact, they wouldn't until they woke up from the stasis they had been put in.

The twelve who consented were put into a stasis as the other four were. Each of the twelve received the Trollian formula, as of the two injections it had failed far more often than the Godtier injection. All twelve survived the process, and all twelve woke up with more than they had bargained for. They had been told that they would gain extra strength, but not what the other effects would be. Upon waking up, the twelve were greeted with mutations to their anatomy as well as strengths they would come to discover.

All twelve found that their skin had grayed, and that they had grown unique horn like appendages upon their heads. Their blood had also changed, ranging a spectrum of colors. For some, there were other physical changes as well, such as the sharpening of teeth, or addition of gills to their anatomy. But one of the changes that effected them all, for better or worse, was the change they experienced to their gender. They no longer occupied one gender, but two, and the anatomy of the accompanying organs were altered as well, although not the same as before. For convenience sake, each decided to remain using the pronouns they once held.

With all of this had also come the strength they were promised. Each gained power they had never thought possible. Some would physically manifest themselves, such as the Psiioniic's control over psionics, other's such as the Dolorosa's were more subtle and played more into a non-physical form. They were all trained individually as their abilities arose. In the end, each had mastered them-self into the perfect war machine.  
>However, most of the way through the project, the Sufferer, known for his visions, looked into the fabric of time. He saw what would happen if the twelve were to allow themselves to be used for what the government had planned. The Sufferer appealed to the other eleven to escape those who wished to control them, those he knew would use them to destroy humanity. Six of the eleven heard his words and were moved. The Dolorosa, the Psiioniic, the Summoner, one called Redglare, and the Disciple would follow his lead in leaving.<p>

Those known as Mindfang, the E%ecutioner, the Grand Highblood, Dualscar, and Her Imperial Condesce chose to ignore his pleas. They sided with the government that had made them what they were. The day the Sufferer chose to stage his and his follower's escapes, the two groups met and clashed. The Sufferer, the Disciple and Psiioniic were captured in the battle sacrificing themselves to aid the other's escape. Those remaining of their party vowed to rescue their comrades. The three were taken and detained until the day that those whom had created them called for their destruction.  
>On the day of they three would meet their fate, many, human and non-human gathered. The E%ecutioner would be the one to deliver their sentencing. The Sufferer came first, chained and with wounds still fresh from his resistance. He delivered a rousing speech to all of those in attendance, one of harmony between all things living. Those he had once called comrades laughed at him. Her Imperial Condesce spoke, her voice resounding across the area where the Sufferer's execution would take place. She spoke of a new age where those who had received the Trollian injections would one day rule over all. She spoke of how the researchers never intended to keep those who had rebelled as part of their plans. They had been doomed to fail from the time the injection reached their veins. The differences in the spectrum of their blood color was to be held as proof. Those with blood not on the end of the spectrum similar to those who remained would have died sooner. His cause was for nothing, for he would never have lived to see it accomplished.<p>

The Sufferer spoke once more, maintaining his belief in equality of both the races of those Trollian and those human. His belief held strong as those who persecuted him tortured, and even as the E%ecutioner shot the arrow of his bow true and ended the Sufferer's life. Silence swept over the crowd as the Sufferer took his final breath, the only noise being that of the Disciple's sorrow. She broke free of those restraining her and ran to hold he who she had loved in secret, whom she had been forced to watch as he became a martyr for what he believed. As she knelt next to the Sufferer's lifeless body, the

E%ecutioner took aim with his bow. But her devotion to the Sufferer touched the humans present and the E%ecutioner himself. He lowered his weapon and refused to take it up to end her life. It was thanks to him that the Disciple was able to make her escape. She would find and rejoin the Dolorosa, Redglare and the Summoner upon her flight. Their story, however was not over.

Outraged at the events that had taken place after the Sufferer's death, Her Imperial Condesce banished the E%ecutioner rather than kill him. She knew he would some day prove useful, and his death at that moment would mean nothing. Her Imperial Condesce stormed away from the scene, followed by the Grand Highblood and Dualscar. She left Mindfang to deal with the final prisoner, the Psiioniic, in whatever way she pleased. The future tyrant ruler left to make her plans of domination.

Mindfang did not kill the Psiioniic as the other highblooded Trollian survivors had assumed she would. His body was grafted into the ship that Mindfang would use to stage her attempts to capture those who had left and her part of the takeover. She exploited his powers until one day his time ran out. If Her Imperial Condesce was right about anything, his death proved that blood color was indeed relative to lifespan, that it did matter.

After this event Mindfang continued her ventures. She succeeded in few, her greatest achievement in capturing the Dolorosa, whom she would sell to the highest bidder on the black market. This act however would seal Mindfang's fate. Redglare, consumed by the need to bring Mindfang to justice, confronted Mindfang in front of some of the followers that had joined the remaining members of the Disciple's group. The justice driven follower captured Mindfang and held an unfair trial against her. However, Redglare had forgotten the power that Mindfang held due to the injections. Mindfang swayed the minds of those in the crowd to turn against Redglare, and in turn, Redglare died by the noose she had fated for Mindfang. But this was not without a price to the surviving Trollian. She lost an arm, which she had replaced by the E%ecutioner whom she had tracked the whereabouts of. After he replaced her arm, she disappeared, not to be seen again, as was the E%ecutioner.

The fates of Dualscar, the Grand Highblood, and the Summoner have been shrouded in mystery. There had been rumor of their whereabouts and doings for only a few months after the Sufferer's execution, but after, no one really knew the truth. To the present, the truth remained unknown. It is said though, that all three are biding their time to make their moves for their causes.

Her Imperial Condesce did succeed with her plans. Her takeover was subtle, and no one even knew how, nor when she had taken over. But her secret was simple. Her Imperial Condesce user her power to give life to her advantage, promising to those who held most of the world's wealth and power that she would extend their lives. Overcome by the idea of living past their years, those in power hastily agreed and turned over their power to her. But Her Imperial Condesce was cunning, and instead took their lives when they had given her what she wanted. With the wealth and power of the world in her hands, she took over the kingdoms of the world. The tyrant ruled from her high throne at the center of the nations, placing laws that would bend the world to her will.  
>However, there was an oversight in both parties plans. For only eleven of the twelve who received the injections had been accounted for. In the midst of the chaos, the Handmaid had escaped. While she did not have the power of visions, she had been given the power over time when her change occurred. Seeing all of the potential futures as she walked through time, she planned in the shadows for what had to be done. She had found hope that this tyranny would end, hope in something small. For like the Handmaid, there was another oversight in all of the planning. When those who had been experimented on had successfully completed the change into what they had become, pieces of their DNA had been taken and stored. The Handmaid knew she could use this to create a new generation of the new race, and that generation would be the ones to end the wrongs done to the world. She sneaked into the laboratory where the DNA was stored and stole sixteen vials. Sixteen vials to save humanity. She used these vials with the technology that created new life to the human race, and brought twelve of her race into existence. They were allowed to be captured and safeguarded within the walls of Prospit and Derse, so that one day, when the time was right, they would rise.<p>

With twelve vials accounted for, the Handmaid initiated the second phase of her plan. She initiated the other four vials at the same time. She set that each date of "birth" would be varied, if just a little, and set the DNA stored into them to be brought to life. This DNA was of the four who had undergone the Godtier experiment, and the four resulting from it would be the instruments that began the bringing of justice back to the world. Together, human, and those who would be called Troll, would finish what the Sufferer had started. And the Handmaid would be there in the shadows to watch events take their course.

Karkat ended his telling of the story and you sat in awe. It was so inconceivable that it was the truth, but you believed him. The evidence was sitting right in front of you. And you knew from what he had said that you were about to see history in the making.  
>"Alright, so let's get this straight, you're genetic weirdos who are going to save the world. How do Egbert and I fit into this? 'Cause it looks like we're going to get into this no matter what happens." Says Dave.<br>"You wanna know how you and the dork over there with the glasses fit into this?" Comes another voice, one you've only heard once before. In your distraction with the story, you hadn't even noticed WV's re-entry into the cell area, "Then you, Dave Strider, should ask your brother. And food for thought, I'll give you one word that has to do with everything, how I know who you are, what you are, and everything that I know about this. It's eyes."  
>And then he was gone, the door sliding closed behind you, leaving you, Dave, and your new troll companions with more questions than you had answers.<p> 


End file.
